Time Management 04

1 Time Management Katie Germin Dr. Jacobs C Period Chemistry Web Reviews 3/28/01 Managing Your Time http://www.campuslife.utoronto.ca/handbook/02001ManagingTime.html Many find it hard to manage clubs, sports, friends…etc along with school. With the right skill it is possible to so school work along with all the other things you enjoy to doing. Taking control of your time is one of the most valuable skills you can acquire. This website is gave many interesting and helpful ways on how to manage you time. From reading this article I learned that if I manage my time I could have time to do other things that I enjoy. The article listed many good ways on how to manage your time         Budget time to prepare for each class and to review your course notes as soon as possible after each class -- a useful habit that saves time in later having to relearn material. Draw up a master list of "to do's" for the term: Note every quiz, mid-term, essay, meeting or appointment in your daytimer. Be flexible: Filling in every blank space on your weekly schedule will only cause frustration when the unexpected pops up. Leave some squares blank and leave 15 minutes of extra time for every hour planned as a buffer for unscheduled interruptions. Set priorities: If you work or have family or other responsibilities, strike a balance by not overdoing it in one area at the expense of another. It helps to have the support of your employer, co-workers and family so that they understand your studies are important to you. Plan ahead for time required for research papers and studying for exams: Make it a goal to start working on things far enough ahead of the due date so you won't be rushing and cramming at the last minute. Be aware of your best times for studying: Plan your study times when you have the best concentration, for example, early in the morning or late in the evening. Make sure your study location is appropriate (not distracting, good light and ventilation). Set several small study goals: If you have a large and overwhelming assignment, break it down into smaller tasks to be accomplished. Long and arduous study periods are not effective. Give yourself rewards (free time, a movie) for accomplishing tasks. Make use of small blocks of time: An hour is ample time to accomplish something useful, such as reviewing your notes after class. With all of these things in mind you will have no problem at all succeeding and managing your time. I would recommend this site to anyone because I feel it shares many good ways on how to manage your time and not procrastinate. I found this site to be easy to read and very understandable. The maker of this website set it up so that it was in graphical form so it was easy to read and take not of the important concepts. I feel that the concepts given were easy to grasp and most anyone can use the ways given to help manage your time. By understand the fundamentals of scheduling and time management I can hopefully simplify my life. Munir Jawed September 27, 2001 Dr. Jacobs 2 Time Scheduling http://www.utexas.edu/student/utlc/handouts/1441.html On this site, I learned a lot about managing my time, and great ways to deal with it by dividing my time weekly into exact hours. With Wilton High School’s demanding courses, we could all use a little advice on time management. Well, here is most concise, straightforward site published by the University of Texas at Austin. I learned that in a 168-hour week, one should get seven or eight hours of sleep a night to stay healthy and concentrated for the next day. This leaves 112 hours of being awake, and most of this time entails that you make the correct decisions in life. I learned to keep a schedule of my time each day, and this reduces the stress and worries that are everyday inflictions upon us students. Disregarding eating time and recreation time mentioned at the beginning of this site, I have a total of 91 hours in school or at home, deciding how to accomplish everything. The best way is to make a record of my time (with a palm pilot, AT-A-Glance daily record book, or other calendar-type device—Dr. Jacobs has one fine handspring visor) is with a portable scheduler, because as a high school student with homework, clubs, sports, and activities, I just simply cannot remember everything in my mind. I learned to keep a motivated attitude and to allow large blocks of time for each activity, and allow long, undisturbed, concentrated time slots for important projects or assignments that require heavy thought. With me, reading can only be absorbed fully under circumstances where the milieu is quiet, I feel physically comfortable, and not eager or anxious to do anything else. This method, according to the UT Learning Center, works best, and most effectively. One of the most important excerpts from this site is: "Plan to really learn the first time; the rest of your study time should be spent reviewing through recitation, discussion, making up and answering possible test questions, etc." I really need to do this to have a higher success rate, as I’m sure most of the high school’s students need to do. This site does not only relate to chemistry, but ALL other subjects; it pertains to our lives. And our lives are the most important things in the world. The concepts are easy to understand and are given in bullet form, separated into particular sections in order from the basic hours in a week, to planning events and making most effectively use your time. Except for the amount of class time they say to spend on each week, the people who constructed this site intended to make this a basis for time scheduling for all students. Hey, it even works for parents and teachers. (But let’s not get off the topic here.) Many of the classes we take in Wilton High School are at the college level. So, in a way, we are college students. All in all, this site was helpful to me, but a few ways to improve it are to give examples of someone’s busy week in a table, or give a sample of what a student should write and how to write it, when scheduling an activity or event. A "more in-depth" analysis of a sample student’s schedule may have helped me understand how to schedule successfully. However, this is not heavily advised. Lauren Fuller March 29, 2001 Chemistry C period Dr. Jacobs Effective Time Planning Strategies Time management reduces stress, increases productivity, and makes life a lot easier on the whole. Planning does not have to be very strict and demanding, but rather doing your work the easiest and most efficient way possible. Making a large time table of calendar to outline the actual time available for studying is important. That way you can literally visualize what the options are and 3 can make manageable goals based on the available time. It should include the activities that are necessary and constant like sleep, a job, or classes. One mistake that I always make is to underestimate the time that something will take. You can avoid this problem by giving a lot of room for an activity that might not take that long. Any extra time is a treat instead of panicking because your planning was off. A way to know your responsibilities is to make a comprehensive list of all the work for one week, including long term assignments or other odd jobs. Then, rank them in order of importance or when they need to be finished by. The three steps given are list, prioritize, and estimate. Some people work best planning out every free hour, some every day, some every week. But as the requirements grow more vague, the risk of procrastination improves. You should plan work according to when you do your best work and when you aren’t at top form. Never study one subject for a long time. Instead, alternate the subjects and you will retain more knowledge and stay more interested in what you are doing. Breaks that are short and frequent help your brain take in and manage all the new information and should be taken. These many steps will help with time management and all the subjects that time is being used for. The information will sink in better, and you will enjoy and get more out of studying. Although it can’t solve every problem, the average chemistry student would benefit from reading it. It is not too dense and not too long. It gives good tips that I hadn’t heard before. I also liked that it addressed procrastination as well as time management because the two topics are closely related. I don’t think I would change this article if I could. Sarah Fuller 10-23-01 Dr. Jacobs Time Management Strategies http://www.mxctc.commnet.edu/clc/tmanstra.htm Time management is something that many high school students have problems with. Often we find ourselves stressing out because we have left too many things for the last minute. There is not a single person who can say that they are a hundred percent efficient with his or her time managing. The site Time Management Strategies by Middlesex Community College is a good site and is very helpful. While it is unrealistic because no one will spend all of their "unscheduled time" rewriting their notes or studying lectures, it makes some very good points about how to go about managing your time. Some of the new information that may be helpful is:  use large wall-size calendar and list all fixed commitments (job, home responsibilities, class schedule, etc.) highlight exam, papers, etc. due each week each day look at weekly calendar and formulate a prioritized "to-do" list establish priorities and set time accordingly find a quiet, comfortable place where there are few distractions keep the "tools of your trade" at hand—i.e., pencils, paper, dictionary use high energy times to study more difficult subjects       4   count backwards from the due date and estimate time needed for each phase of the project always allow more time than is actually needed While this site is very short, and a bit unrealistic in some ways, it is very readable and clear for high school students. The site has room for improvement such as starting off with a better introduction, and, as I already mentioned, being more realistic about today’s teen. We can not be studying twenty-four-seven, we needs some down time. And the suggestion of planning out every hour of the week is almost impossible, due to unexpected events that may occur. This is a good site but if it wants to be taken more seriously then it needs to think more about what is logical, even if the illogical ideas are good ones. Kristin Clamage Chemistry C period May 25, 2001 Tips for Improving Time Management http://www.dartmouth.edu/admin/acskills/lsg/time_tips.html Dartmouth College This website is a list of 10 tips for improving time management. Time Management is an important skill that one must acquire in order to become organized and less stressed. I feel that my time management is not where it should be and was curious to see what the site recommended. I found this site very helpful because instead of being a list of things you had to change about yourself as if you needed to improve all your negative skills, some of the tips included very positive tips. I thought this was good to include because it is more motivational when one can look forward to an obvious positive outcome. The tips that the site had included concentrating on one thing at a time, keeping a calendar, using all time usefully, and make goals and remind yourself of the goals frequently. I think that all of these would definitely help someone improve their time management. For someone that has trouble remembering things to do, a calendar and reminders in your room would be of use. Also, the positive tips such as "try rewarding yourself when you get things done as you had planned…" and " stop regretting failures and start learning from your mistakes" could easily inspire someone to start to manage their time more wisely. Overall, I feel these brief 10 tips are extremely helpful and useful. I agree that each would improve time management and plan to take into account many of the tips into my own study habits so that my personal organization is improved as well. I think that anyone that needs to organize their time better should view this website because it is very positive and helpful. Laurie Duggins October 6, 2001 Dr. Jacobs, D period Chemistry Time Management http://www.d.umn.edu/student/loom/acad/strat/time_manage.html I found a very helpful site about time management at the University of Minnesota Duluth. The site is easy to read, and has understandable concepts. Beginning with "Tick, tick, tick...No it’s not the beginning to 60 minutes nor is it the dreaded crocodile coming to get Captain Hook. Its time moving on.",you can see that it is humorous as well as informative. The sight contains helpful hints and ideas on how to manage you time, and is not just boring list of facts. 5 In the article, I learned that most time management experts say the first thing you need to do is make a "time audit". A time audit is a way to evaluate your time, and realize what you need to spend more time on, and which aspects of your life you spend too much time on. One way to do this is to make a chart of every half hour of the day, and record what you are doing at the time. Once you have done this for a few weeks, you can make a planned weekly schedule, which will help you succeed in doing the things you need to get done. This site also provides seven time management principles. These principles include finding a "Best time" to study. Everyone can concentrate better at different times during the day. You might be a morning person rather than a night person. Also, I learned that you should study difficult subjects first, as well as studying in shorter time blocks with short breaks in between. Another tip is to make sure you are in a quiet area when studying. If you cannot concentrate, you are not doing yourself any good. Likewise, you have to make room for entertainment and a social life. School is more than just studying! Finally, you must make sure you eat and sleep properly. Many students take time away from sleep to do other tasks, which just makes them more fatigued. This is not a good way to manage yourself in relation to time. As a result, this site really helped me and I think it is great for college, as well as high school students. It is easy to relate to, giving examples on how to balance friends and relationships and studying. It includes blank charts that you can print out and use to manage your time, as well as sample ones. Ending with the phrase "Did you catch tat? Time really can’t be managed. You can’t slow it down or speed it up or manufacture it. If just IS. Time management is MANAGING YOURSELF.", the site is fabulous, and I encourage everyone to visit it. Sue-Jean Chun Dr. Jacobs - C Period 5/22/01 http://www.manhattan.edu/stntlife/ccenter/articles/timemgmt/asp-time.html The site at Manhattan College on time management, "Getting Those Assignments Done", is a very good site that includes a lot of tips, and ways to identify if you have damaging study habits. The text itself and the way the site was structured was very readable, plus the subjects and ideas of the site were put under titles, in a nice organized way. For example, you have Damaging Beliefs, Organizing your Time, and Here are some tips which may help you. This helped to sort out the information clearly. Many high school students get swamped with homework every night. I am one of those students who are found guilty, trying to finish their homework, but then breaking down, tired, not getting enough sleep, etc. This site could definitely come in handy for a busy and timeconsumed high school student. Not only could they realize that they need to find more efficient ways to get their work done, but also they could use tips mentioned to work faster and better. Throughout the whole entire article, I found a lot of interesting information out. First, I did not know that you could slack, if you let external events control your life. I do not usually allow this, but sometimes I do find myself using deadlines and due dates to motivate me. The site also mentioned a lot of things that suprised me, just because they were known as "damaging habits". I never thought that thinking that you had no limit could damage you. My thought was always that you should never let anyone bind you down, always go for the biggest and best. I guess this forms a more arduous path, to reach an impossible goal. Out of the whole site, I knew that the most useful attitude was that you should know your own limits, and that you should meet your own expectations. Trying to meet others, would form a horrible sense against yourself, and make you feel like your not good enough. 6 All in all this site was very useful and vital to someone who was seeking information on how to get their homework done without staying up late, or taking up too much time. I think this site was well made, and doesn’t really have any noticeable flaws or aspects that need to be fixed. There is room for improvement, but then again, all sites have that space. So, if anything had to be changed, they should make the ideas clear, and not muddle them up so much with other things. Kate Williams Written: 2/19/02 – Due: 2/22/02 Dr. Jacobs Goal Setting and Time Management http://www2.ncsu.edu/for_students/success/goal_setting.html I’m writing this web review to help people who are lacking in the area of time management. Personally, I’m good at budgeting my time and staying organized, but the article offered tips that even I found to be helpful. I have my own way of staying organized in order to accomplish goals by writing down all my assignments, both daily and long-term, in my planner. The website displayed a new system of completing tasks effectively by using a 3-step process. The first part is to "Create a Vision." By having a general understanding of your purpose, you’ll be able to efficiently heighten your standards. For example, ask yourself what you’re doing, and why you’re in school. Most people will probably say, "to be educated in order to be successful in life and get into a good college," or something along those lines. By knowing your purpose, that will make you work harder to achieve something. If a person is striving to get into a competitive college, they probably are working very hard in school to make their dream a reality. The second step of the time management/goal setting process is to "Set Concrete Goals." This follows forming a vision because it enables one to change his or her vision into a reachable task. Setting goals isn’t enough, however – they must be effective, specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic, and time-resource constrained, to name a few. Lastly, the goals have to be manageable. In order to make something manageable, it should be broken down into small parts. For instance, rather than saying "I want to have my chemistry test taken by Friday," write down in an organizer specifically how much studying you’ll do each night, and when to see the teacher for extra help, if needed. The last step of this process is "Develop a Daily Plan," which really turns goals into daily tasks. One of the specific tasks from the page that I found helpful was, "Know when you are ‘at your best.’ For some it’s first thing in the morning, for others it’s right before bed. Use this time to accomplish your most challenging tasks so you can focus your best energy on it." The concepts in this article are easy to understand, and it’s definitely suitable for a high school student since time management is so important when balancing time between school, sports, jobs, friends, families, and anything else that is part of a regular student’s day. Even though the page was relatively long, it was worth reading the whole thing – I recommend it, and it was fine how it was. Max Schwendner Managing Your Time http://guts.studentorg.wisc.edu/brtmmng.htm Chemistry III- Dr. Jacobs Period: E Thursday, January 04, 2001 7 This site is very informative in some parts, however is not targeted for a high school audience and is not as effective in expressing new styles of keeping track of one’s time. The site starts out with a four-step plan to help you discover how to manage your time effectively. The site states: Determine and set your goals. Develop a plan to reach these goals. Implement the plan. Monitor and revise your plan as needed. This site’s way of keeping better track of time is not nearly as effective or as valuable as the system suggested by the University of Buffalo. The site is easy to read, as it is intended for a n audience of young, college adults, and is also easy to understand, however it fails to include the basics to make it an outstanding site. What I would suggest is that the authors of this site go back and revise the way their plan works. I think that their plan is too vague and thus is not as helpful to any student, college or high school. With such an important commodity, time needs to be planned effectively and not just to plan to make a plan. This site suggests writing a schedule of blocks of time, however just writing down what you are going to do and for how long in those blocks is not effective enough. You need to write what you are going to, how long are you going to spend on it, and when it is due. This site also says to pick up a GUTS schedule in the main office, however this does not help the other students besides their student body who want to understand how to manage their time. Setting and Achieving Your Goals http://www.scs.tamu.edu/selfhelp/elibrary/goals/htm Max Schwendner Chemistry III- Dr. Jacobs Period: E Thursday, January 04, 2001 This site is very helpful in setting up your goals but not so much the achieving part. This site sets up various categories for each of your different goals, which I find very helpful. The site makes it very simple what is your long and short-term goals and how to achieve them. In addition, this site is excellent for students of all ages. This site can be used by almost any level of students simply because of the tremendous open-ended possibilities, which exist under this plan. The author lists the different categories of goals such as: specific, time-limited, manageable, and realistic. Through breaking all of these goals down you can make sure that you are accomplishing the things you both need to and want to. I would recommend this site to anyone who needs help setting up a plan. However to put the plan in motion I would use another site, the University of Buffalo’s Time Management. Perhaps, the author could provide a more structured plan of how to implement the plan, rather than just seeing if the plan answers all of the questions that the author lists. A plan should do more than just answer a bunch of questions linked together to provide a reading on its achievability. Time Management http://ub-counseling.buffalo.edu/studytime.shtml Max Schwendner 8 Chemistry III- Dr. Jacobs Period: E Thursday, January 04, 2001 Time, too little time, that’s what everyone always says. Time Management is one of the largest problems that I personally have and most students share this problem also. This web site starts right at the beginning naming the largest problem, procrastination. Why do something today, when you can put it off until tomorrow? This site is very helpful in that it describes some of the many different forms of procrastination, and what to look out for. It reads on the site: "One more day won’t make any difference; I’ll just put that off until tomorrow." "It won’t matter if I am a few minutes late; no one else will be on time." "I can’t start on this paper until I know just how I want the first paragraph to read." "I work best under pressure." "I’ll watch just 15 more minutes of TV." What is scary is that I have at one time or another done exactly all of these things. This site is excellent at going right to the problem and even though its target audience is a college student body, it is very useful for regular high school students. One of the most reoccurring ideas in this site is the idea of a calendar. Their ideas are to discover when things will happen either through a syllabus at a college level or one could infer by copying down when things are assigned, stay away from distractions, and allow yourself to have fun. All of these ideas are very relevant to the problems concerning high school students. This site is very readable and is very simple to comprehend and thus follows their own plans of not spending too much time on things not accounted for by your plan. I would recommend this website to anyone who is having difficulty getting their assignments done or if they are having trouble keeping up with their work. Sarah Fieber 7 June 2002 Dr. Jacobs "Time Management and Making a Master Schedule" http://www.unc.edu/depts/unc_caps/TimeMgnt.html Considering that final exams are rapidly approaching, I thought that a web review on time management would be appropriate and helpful. With only one week left to study before the first day of finals, and six exams for which to study, I am feeling slightly pressured and stressed, and I am sure that many other students feel similarly. Although I will only completely "de-stress" after I have completed all of my final exams, there are some things that can make the studying process more manageable and not quite as overwhelming. One of these things, at least for me, is making a study schedule. I have tried this strategy before, and even though it helped, it wasn’t completely effective. The schedule was not a good one, and I found it impossible to "stick to." That is why I am going to heed the advice of this web page, which explains how to make "a master schedule." The site makes numerous suggestions on how to develop a good schedule. Some of the ones that I found interesting, important, true, or unknown to me before reading the web page are:  Block out time for the basics of daily living, i.e., eating, sleeping, personal maintenance, and travel. 9      Plan at least one hour blocks for study. Know your high energy and "down" times during the day and use them wisely. Murphy’s Laws: o Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. o Everything takes longer than you think it will. Parkinson’s Law: Work tends to expand to fill the time allotted. Schedule social activities, including time for just chatting. Those guidelines make sense. It is pointless to have a study session (unless it is a quick review) for less than an hour, because one needs time to get things organized and absorb more than only a paragraph of information. One should include leisure time and time to eat, sleep, etc. in his or her schedule, or else the schedule will be unrealistic. Also, I found it interesting that the web site included Murphy’s Law and Parkinson’s Law. Although I do not completely agree with Murphy’s Law, I think one should take it into consideration when planning a study schedule. I had never heard Parkinson’s Law before, but I agree with it and I think it is also a good thing to keep in mind when making a schedule. The site is both readable and understandable. It is presented clearly, listing each suggestion in bullet form. This site is definitely suitable for a high school student, since time management is crucial not only when studying for exams, but every day, when doing homework, attending school clubs and sports, and leaving some leisure time. The web page is helpful and straightforward; I do not have any suggestions for how it could be improved. Robin Withall 3-19-2000 Web Reviews G Per. Dr Jacobs University of St. Thomas, Joe Landsberger: Time Managment http://www.iss.stthomas.edu/studyguides/timman.htm: This is an extensive, readable site on how to manage time effectively. Not only does it talk about class work (as all of the sites I’ve reviewed do) but it also discusses balancing a personal life with an academic life. The following are the main guidelines of the site: Guidelines:     Monitor your time Reflect on how you spend your time Be aware of when you are wasting your time Know when you are productive It then discusses the guidelines in detail, stressing the importance of balancing your life between work and play. Landsberger also suggests eating well-balanced meals, and getting enough sleep, something no other site I have seen does. Though it seems that the first page is comprehensive enough, there is a second page with charts for time management, similar to the one on the Texas A & M site. I recommend this site for any high school student. Though it is very detailed, it is a quick and easy read with many hints on the subject. Robin Withall 3-19-2000 Web Reviews 10 G Per. Dr Jacobs http://www.scs.tamu.edu/selfhelp/elibrary/abc.htm: Texas A & M: Time Managment This page is very short (the shortest I’ve come across in awhile) and I suggest it for anyone who is very limited on time, and needs a quick and easy method for time management. The ABC time management method is the following: A. "Must Do" Completed Terrific Very Good Good Okay Bad Very Bad Terrible All All All 3/4+ 1/2+ 1/4+ None B. "Should Do" Completed All All 3/4+ 1/2+ 1/4+ None None C. "Could Do" Completed All 3/4+ 1/2+ 1/4+ None None None In actuality, this page is explaining a method of organization. You make a table according to the importance of the tasks you must complete during the week, and rate yourself on how well you did them. Though this is a technique I have not yet come across, it is more for organization purposes than time management. Personally, even writing down that something is important won’t make me do it. I might forget or put it aside and run out of time. However, I recognize that some people benefit from charts and tables and in their case this page would be most helpful. Maggie Costich December 6, 2002 D Period Chemistry Dr. Jacobs Web Review: "Twenty Time Savers" http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/study/time.html Getting into selective colleges has become an increasingly difficult task over the past several years. High school students are always looking for advantages that will land them on the acceptance list of their dream school. In order to get this advantage, many students believe that they must join numerous extracurricular activities and take the most challenging academic courses that their school has to offer. Thus, high school students are constantly struggling to manage their time wisely between all these after school activities and their schoolwork. "Twenty Time Savers" provide the reader with useful tips on how students can make the most of their precious time. Although the tips were very useful, I found them to be all too familiar. This website did not provide the reader with any new information. We have all been told to avoid procrastination and to set priorities before. Even though, these tips act as a great reminder as to what we must do to manage our time wisely. I was also disappointed with how small the website was. The authors did not provide us with a plethora of information nor were there any links to other webpages. Hopefully, in the future, the authors decide to add more information to the page. 11 Overall though, I would recommend the site to anyone who has many tasks to juggle at once. Just having a copy of these twenty tips on your desk at home would be very beneficial. Chris Slavin Chemistry B Period Dr. Jacobs 5/7/03 E/C Web Review Time Management: http://www.d.umn.edu/student/loon/acad/strat/time_manage.html The article starts out by pointing out that managing ones time is a skill not many possess, and yet it is a skill that many people need. They also define exactly what time management is, and how one should go about beginning to manage it. By introducing it in such a way, I realize the importance of time management, find out just what it is, and get a small introduction on how I should manage my important time. This introduction captured my interest and introduced me to the topic, and so it was a very good one. The article then moves on to providing a link to a chart on which one should fill out their daily activities over the course of a week. They provide this, because according to them, the first step in managing one’s time is to realize what it is that they are doing everyday and when. This idea is very logical and thus makes a lot of sense to me and anyone else who reads the article. How else can one manage one’s time besides figuring out what they do on a daily basis? There isn’t much of another successful method. So, not only do they tell the reader that they should write out what they do everyday, but they also provide a chart to fill in this information. Once this is done, they provide a link that explains how to actually begin managing one’s time. There are seven of these useful tips to managing time, and they all make a lot of sense and would seem to work. The web site suggests things like figuring out if the reader is more alert in the daytime or the nightime, and to leave things like homework in that time period, and to leave things like laundry and minor errands for the opposite time, since not as much concentration and energy are required for errands or laundry. The web site also suggests studying difficult subjects first, since a student can save more time by studying the hard subjects first when they have more energy, and when they have less energy they can study the easier subjects that don’t require much time or energy anyway. Another thing the web site points out is to use managing one’s time to make room for leisure time. The web site says that a student must have a healthy balance between school and fun in their lives, and they suggest using time management skills and strategies for creating more of this balance. I found this web site very important for someone who needs more time and who should therefore manage it better. I don’t find myself running out of time, so I didn’t find the web site useful, although I found it interesting and not boring at any time. For someone who does need help managing their time, however, the web site would be perfect and very useful. It was a web site that didn’t get boring and had realistic advice that can really help many people in a common problem. Alex Lewis 5/14/03 Dr. Jacobs "Classroom Success: Time Management" http://web.sass.uottawa.ca/classroom/guides/timemanagement1.php 12 This was a very helpful site. Personally, I tend to procrastinate things that need to get done. This site suggested that the easiest way to make sure you get everything done is to write it down on a note card, and to check it off as you go along. Now while I might not have time to so something like that, I’m sure that I will now try to prioritize more in my head throughout the day, and as soon as I get home. They suggested that as soon as you get home, get started on your homework, so you don’t give yourself a reason to procrastinate, and also that you should start working on the hardest area first. This obviously makes sense, because once you have it over with, then you can get on to easier things, and it feels like a relief, and you also aren’t as stressed about them. Also, the site said that when prioritizing, we need to look at sacrifices that need to be made. I always tend to not want to give anything in my schedule up, whether it is social or educational. But when a large project may come up, this site made me realize that it is the main concern, and that social activities should go out the window until you have it under control. This site was extremely helpful. I am always inclined to have problems with my time management, and now I have an idea of what to do when I have major stress school-wise. Although I may not follow some of the physical techniques, such at taking the time to write a schedule for the next day, I know now that I should look ahead to the next day to see what needs to be done, and what is most important on my "to-do list". This site will obviously be helpful to everyone. Although younger children do not seem to have schedules as crammed as older ones, it is good for them to know how to organize their schedule for the future. And of course this site will be useful for adults and highschool students, who are likely to bite off more than they can chew. Lizzy Krivoshik March 2003 Chem- FE Dr. Jacobs Web Review #3: Time Scheduling: http://www.utexas.edu/student/utlc/handouts/1441.html For as long as I can remember I have never been able to really be able to schedule my time the best that I can. Sometimes I procrastinate or something takes longer than expected or something is brought to my attention that I have to do that I had forgotten about, etc. Over the years I have gotten better, but between school, homework, track, hanging out with my friends, and extra curricular activities managing my time has become more of a problem. That is why The University of Texas’ web site on time scheduling has helped me so much. This web site, easy to understand for people of all ages helps show ways to manage your time better and to give helpful hints. They first begin by stating that there are 168 hours in a week and that 56 hours sleeping, 21 hours eating, 20 hours of attending class and labs, and 71 hours studying, recreation, and everything else. Therefore by making a schedule can help cut down on tensions, worries, and daydreams. Plus it also frees you from making top-level decisions, allowing you to make the best of your time. To begin to make a schedule, start by making a record or of your fixed activities throughout the week and take it from there. However remember… o o o o o o o Plan your schedule at about 5-10 minutes after you get up or before you go to bed Allow larger blocks of time for learning new material, etc. (divide that time block by your attention span to get the most out of studying) Brief break in between various activities Short periods of time to review (15-45 min) Work on harder study tasks when fully awake/alert Do something daily Plan to really learn the 1st time 13 o Don’t try to allocate all your time I hope that for anyone who has a hard time managing time efficiently should go to this web site and that they benefit as much as I have from it. Bryan Splittorf 1/17/03 Dr. Jacobs, D period "Time Management Skills" http://www.campusaccess.com/campus_web/student/s3acad_time.htm This site highlights many of the key fundamental steps and preparations one should take in order to effectively study and thoroughly complete school work. It mentions setting aside a specific part of one’s day and planning other commitments or activities around that instead of trying to squeeze study time in between social engagements and sports practices. Also, this article enforces sticking to the schedule that one has made and if a student does allow time to study, it will become easier and the time can become more flexible but the commitment must be established first. In addition, one must choose an effective place to study with a favorable studying environment whether its quiet or loud, whatever helps the student to concentrate. I learned that the key to managing one’s time is attitude and that without a determined attitude about making time to study the effort will be useless. I found this site to be easily readable with decent sized black printing against a white background. Also, the information was divided into key areas of concern making for easy reference. The article was quite clear in its message and the wording was definitely geared to the casually lazy student as specific words and cultural aspects were used in order to help the student identify more with the context. I also noticed that the text was bordered by a solid color on each side, which were patriotic red and blue making the site look like an American flag. I would suggest adding a few students’ comments on the site and if the tips there were helpful to them in order to promote these methods’ effectiveness. Marsha Smith D Period; Dr. Jacobs March 6, 2003 Time Management "Time Management Techniques" http://slc.otago.ac.nz/studyskills/ch1sect.4.asp Otago University’s "Time Management Techniques" site begins with a general description of what a typical scholastic week is like for a full time undergraduate student. The site provides basic useful information that develops a picture of the challenges facing a student and portrays the perspective of a college student. The site advises that time scheduling be broken into three parts; semester, weekly, and daily planning. When planning for the semester it is important for a student to ask oneself the following questions: -What are my long term goals? -What do I want to accomplish this semester? -How much time to I need to spend on my studies? -How much time do I have for other things? An important part of planning for a semester is prioritizing. It is necessary to take into account the amount of time each activity will consume, its level of urgency, and its level of importance. 14 When planning one’s week, it is important to take into account the following: - try to schedule your study at the time of day which is most productive for you. - make sure that the time you allocate for study is quality time. - Schedule in your formal and informal commitments. o o o o Study the subjects you find most difficult or boring before the one’s you find interesting. Review your weekly goals Plan your study environment Create ways to reward yourself When planning one’s day, it is important to compile a list of activities, labeling each one A, B, or C, with A’s being the most important tasks. It is also important to maintain motivation. This site is very readable. It contains slightly larger than average type and the points to consider flow easily. Each point is simple and reflects what most people would consider important. This site is very suitable for a high school student or someone who is attending college because it states very fundamental information required for academic success. Amelia Nichol A/B Period – Dr. J. March 20, 2003 Time Management I am sure every one has problems with time management. Because of our busy lives we can never find the right amount of time for studying or we’re too impatient to sit and concentrate for 1-2 hours. Unfortunately, I believe that this site doesn’t provide you with the kind of information to help manage that desperately needed extra time. It is very oriented to the Colby-Sawyer College and refers to its James House often as a place to seek help on how to manage your time. This may be helpful to students of that school, but isn’t very helpful to people attending high school. Also, this site gives information that I already knew, so I didn’t come away with anything that might have helped me. The only bit of information that I found helpful was to set specific study goals while reading. By knowing what you are trying to find out from the reading, you will be able to understand the text better. Another good point about the site was that it was very readable. The bullets about each tip were kept short, but informative and were in large enough type that the reader could just breeze by each example, instead of getting stuck trying to read cluttered words. Also there isn’t much information, so it doesn’t feel overwhelming, but because it’s lacking tips, it doesn’t provide many helpful hints. There were only four tips in total and all of them were ones I’m sure most students have heard of before. My suggestion to the people interested in learning about how to manage your time is to find another site that has more than four tips. Typically, if there are more tips, there is going to be something you haven’t heard of before and could find those ones useful Molly Costich 9/11/03 Dr. Jacobs D 15 http://www.csbsju.edu/academicadvising/help/23tmt.html 23 Time Management Skills During the school year, I play three different varsity sports, am a member of numerous extracurricular clubs, and try to maintain contact with the outside world. On top of this, I am in all honor classes and must have good grades in order to continue participating in the above activities. Stress is inevitable, and my procrastinating nature does not help it. As the new school year begins, I would like to use my time in the most efficient and effective way. Thus, I decided to do a web review of Time Management. This website is split into three different sections. The first of these sections is entitled "Study When" and six bullets of tips follow. The first bullet says to plan to study two hours for every hour that you spend in class. That would mean doing sixteen hours of homework each night and getting no sleep. However as this is made for students attending the College of St. Benedicts at St. John’s University one must consider the context of the author and who his main audience is. If I adjusted this idea to spending fifteen to forty-five minutes and review, what I did in class it would work. The next bullet recommends studying difficult or boring subjects first. I already practice this recommendation and advise others with a short attention to do the same. The third bullet reads, "Avoid scheduling marathon study sessions." Too often last year did I come home from a night game and find myself cramming for a biology test the next day. All it took was a 60% on the first test for me to realize that preparing a little each night the week before is a much better method. The next section discusses where one should study. The basic idea of this section is that one should study in the same place as long as it is productive and have minimal distractions. It also says not to get too comfortable. For me that means not staying in a study hall room being tempted by friends and going to a quiet cubicle in the library. At home, with four kids in the family, it is seldom quiet. I often go to the public library or my dad’s office to have the solitude that I need. The final section is entitled "You and the Outside World." This discusses avoiding distractions and asking yourself questions like, "Would I pay myself for what I’m doing right now?" and "Can I do just one more thing?" I believe that studying is like a game or race; it is best when one is in the "zone." By zone, I mean that one is intensely focused and prepared to put all of his or her energy into the task. If this is what it takes someone to reach this place, then go ahead. In conclusion, the site was not applicable to me. I guess I was looking for a site more directed at organizational skills and using time most effectively. I also think the suggestions were not that original; I found them to be common sense. Alicia Sullivan Dr. Jacobs, D period September 24, 2003 Time Management http://www.mtsu.edu/~studskl/tmths.html Having good time management is a very important skill. I know that many high school students, including myself have difficulty controlling their time management. Managing your time becomes more and more difficult with all of the different activities present in a teenagers life. Some of helpful tips this article included in improving Time Management are: 16          Fill out a master schedule Make a regular time and place to study Use your study halls Use daylight hours to study whenever possible Keep an assignment book Take breaks Use flash cards or summary sheets Save more difficult tasks for times when you are more alert Make a checklist and do important tasks first If you have control of your time you will see better results in schoolwork and have more time to yourself. The information given about time management was very helpful. The ideas presented were very easy to understand and use in everyday routines. In reading this article I can take the necessary steps in improving my own time management. Christine Liu September 5, 2003 Dr. Jacobs Time Management http://ub-counseling.buffalo.edu/studytime.shtml Managing time is a task that everybody must overcome in his or her life. Being a high school student who has to organize test dates alongside after school activities I chose this article hoping to find some useful advice. The website explains right in the beginning that as oppose to time management, something that is non-existent, we must focus on self-management. It brings about the obvious fact that there are twenty-four hours in a day. However, it explains the difference between a person who uses the time gainfully and a person who does not. While the first person feels free to go to social activities the latter always is frustrated and behind in his or her work. The website goes on to explain to that reader what should be done to organize time in two simple steps. Obtaining a weekly schedule is the main point of both steps. First off the website says that you should get a weekly schedule and write down how your time is spent in one week. The second step brings you further into this idea of writing down your schedule. The website tells the reader to collect several more of these weekly schedules and to continue with the planning of activities each week. By organizing your time and following your schedule you should be able to get everything you want to accomplish on time. Items such as procrastination and interruptions are brought up when you read further. The website gives general examples of the thoughts running through your mind when you can feel procrastination coming on. It does not give any advice on how to deal with procrastination however, which I thought would have been helpful. The topic of dealing with interruptions was that part that I found to be more helpful. It explained how you should learn to say "no" to invitations and temptations mentally and also that you should stay away from such items as the phone or computer when working. I found the website to be organized well so that each section is clear and helpful. The wording is also very simple and high school students would find it easy to read. The topic of time management is a great issue for many people; however, it is also difficult to give advice. Since everyone manages time in his or her own way no specific way can be told and the website just gave some very general tips. 17 Libby Sherwood 9/29/03 Dr. Jacobs Time Management Time seems to evade me, I think I should be able to get my homework completed by a reasonable hour, and then I don’t finish until after 11:00. My homework seems to take me forever, one of the reasons for this being that I’m so tired from staying up the previous night, that it’s hard to focus when it’s so late- and then I’m tired again the next day. I try not to put off assignments, but when it gets late, I wonder if it’s more important to get some sleep, or work on the long/difficult assignment that’s due in a few days. In order to improve my situation, the SUNY Buffalo website recommended I should examine and make a schedule of exactly what I’m doing with my time. Then I should make a schedule of my ideal schedule, and try to follow it as precisely as possible, avoiding distractions and focusing on the task at hand. One of the things I say to myself when I’m not doing work, is, "I’m taking a break, and it’s okay because then I’m going to go back to work." Perhaps, however, my "breaks" are too long, or too frequent. True I don’t watch TV or listen to music, but when I’m in the car going somewhere, and think I should be doing work in the car, I find myself falling asleep, and making the excuse to myself that it will revive me for my work later. This is not so, I find, when I’m still tired later. If I want to take a short nap, the car is not the place to do it, because in the car, I’m not sleeping soundly enough for it to revive me. When I get an assignment that I will have the weekend to complete, I feel relieved, thinking that I can catch up on everything over the weekend. But by the time Friday roles around, I’m so overwhelmed with all the work I have, I don’t even think I have time to go to my Grandmother’s house on Sunday. I feel overwhelmed when there are many long-term assignments for a class which I’m not sure how to tackle. For example, in English I have to answer questions on our reading for Monday, and answer questions on another bit of reading for Tuesday. The second assignment will by far be harder, because I have to write a long paragraph for one of the questions. I also have an essay due on Friday that I haven’t started. On top of that, I’m supposed to be reading a book and writing about it, which I ultimately will have to write 9 pages for, and have been told that we should be ¼ of the way done, when I haven’t even started. So English is overwhelming enough, and then I have other homework as well. I usually try to do things ahead of time. But I’m never sure how ahead I should start them. For instance, I know I have a lot of work, and I figure I will have a lot throughout the week, so I assume I have just as much time to write this web review now, as in a few days. I should make a list of the other assignments I know I have throughout the week and how much I should work on them each day. This will make me better prepared for class and on top of things, as well as help lessen my stress level. The university of Florida website suggests to make a list of my goals. Start off by listing what my long term goals are, then my present goals, and then make a daily list of things I wish to accomplish and prioritize them. A really good tip this site suggested was to schedule the toughest assignments when I’m sharpest, like maybe right when I get home, or after dinner. This way I’m not struggling to stay awake, and to complete a challenging assignment. I should also learn that it’s okay to say no sometimes to my Mom, and not feel bad. She understands that it’s more important for me to get my work done, all I need to do is remind her of this when she asks me to do an unnecessary task. 18 The Dartmouth College website reminded me of some things that I try to do, but should also try to be more aware of. One is that I should try to find something enjoyable about everything I do. This is important, because if I’m constantly focusing on the bad aspects of every assignment, it will bog me down and be more difficult to complete. I should, as they said, try to be satisfied with every moment, moving past my failures and focusing on improving the situation for next time so I won’t make the same mistake twice. It’s also a good reminder, to "Put [my] efforts in areas that provide long term benefits." Now I have to stop writing this to go make schedules and lists of my goals. Elizabeth Konover 10/23/03 Dr. Jacobs D Period "Fundamentals For Student Success" http://www2.ncsu.edu/for_students/success/goal_setting.html Goal Setting and Time Management Time, something we all have, but never enough of. As many students have noticed, time management is a critical skill for surviving High School. Between school, athletics, and after school activities, time management can sometimes be difficult to get a handle on. An article form NC State, "Fundamentals for Student Success", breaks down the concepts of time management into three steps: Create a vision, set concrete goals, and develop a daily plan. Create a Vision The first step to their time management process is to create a vision. You should make unambiguous, distinguished goals. As the article says, setting high standards will "increase your expectations of yourself and your actions will likely follow." Creating a vision does not only set goals, but motivates you to try hard. Set Concrete Goals This article breaks down how to set sensible achievable goals. After the vision is created, goals must be established to enforce it.  Specific Vague goals are not the most successful goals. This article emphasizes that "SMART" goals are more likely to be fulfilled than goals which are almost impossible to achieve. Specify your goals which you would like to achieve. Measurable Plan out how much time you will need for each specific topic and/or activity. Time management depends on how you measure out your time. As the article says you should "define a specific measurement" before setting out to do the task. Action-Oriented The goals which you set out to do, should actually accomplish something useful. Make sure that the goals are "action-oriented" meaning that they will fulfill your needs to get to the place you would like to be (your vision). Realistic Although your goals should be far-fetched so your can possible "increase expectations of yourself", do not have them be unreachable. If you do you may just become frustrated, instead of motivated. The article gives the example of someone having a student government meeting that will keep you from two hours. You must plan ahead to reach the goal of completing your homework, but not set the goal of doing your homework AND going to the meeting. This will just leave you distraught.    19  Time and Resource Constrained Time management is based on the fact of making time for certain tasks which need to be accomplished. This, in my opinion, is one of the most important elements to time management. You may see the vision and set the goals, and run out of time to accomplish them. Budget your time wisely. Remember, every minute counts. Develop a Daily Plan The final ingredient of time management in this article is developing a daily plan. This article includes multiple tips for creating a healthy time schedule to complete responsibilities. One tip that I never thought of doing which sounds helpful is "color-coding your calendar can help you easily make sense of your day." These easy tips seem like they would help to organize someone’s life full of time consuming (and non-time consuming) activities. I feel that this article went into great depths to fulfill the readers want to know how to budget their time management. Whether just skimming, or thoroughly reading, the audience can take away a lot of knowledge of time management, and how to overcome difficulties of the subject. Kerry Hand D Period-Jacobs February 4, 2004 Time Management Time management is an important asset for everyone’s life. If you can use your time effectively and efficiently, you will have more time to relax or do the things you enjoy doing. It is important to first know when you will have free time. Make a chart of the things that you must do, like a calendar, and find the slots where you can make some good use of your time. Next, establish a regular place to study. Having a designated study area will help you know that you have to focus and this will be more efficient. Use your free periods and study halls the best you can. This will help you get a lot of work done and also will let your back have a rest by not having to bring home so many books. Something interesting I read in this article is that "for most people for every hour of study done in daylight hours, it will take them one and a half hours to do the same task at night." So, it is best to get the most done while it is still light out. Part of this may be because at night you get more tired and therefore get lazy. So, do the hardest tasks when you are most alert. Keep a date book and write down all assignments. It gives you a self of accomplishment when you can cross something off that you got done. Take frequent breaks, you will get more out of studying that way because you will have a few new starts, rather than 2 hours straight of looking at the same thing. Taking breaks every 30 minutes or so will get you refreshed and more alert. Make study guides or flash cards. By doing this, you can bring them wherever you go and can study at odd times. For example, you can study while waiting in line or waiting for class to start. Set priorities, and know what you must get done today, and get the most important things done fast. These tips will help you to use your time wisely so you can relax later! Evan Turner December 20, 2003, Chemistry C-D Period Dr. Jacobs Time Management http://www.southwestern.edu.academic/acser-skills-timeman.html When researching the topic of time management, there was a vast range of ideas and facts to talk about; I chose this particular site over all the other sites because it was well organized and easy to comprehend. There have been many studies on how to manage one’s time more efficiently, but not 20 all of them are useful. This site provided four steps for time management. Usually, students who take part in activities more than other maintain higher grades than those who don’t. It is hard to receive good time management skills, but hopefully the four on this site will be of some use. The first step in good time management is scheduling you main time commitments such as you class work, sports, and studying. You shouldn’t allow all of your time to be fixed on school though. You need to remember to allow certain times to have fun. An important part of having a schedule is sticking to your schedule. This site provided all the information a person needs to know when dealing with a study group. When one is having difficulty on the current course material, some are afraid to ask the teacher questions. This is quite fine, but you still need to have your question answered. The way you deal with this is by forming a study group and bringing up all of your concerns to the other members. It is important to take turns when discussing the material; it will build the confidence of all the member of the group by sharing your own thoughts and ideas. Discipline is another quality gained by working as a group. By agreeing on time periods to meet up with the other members of the group one will work harder to get the work done faster and with better quality. Another skill learned is teamwork. The only way you can learn how to work as a team is by doing everything together. Allison Cole 9/12/03 Dr. Jacobs "Time Management Tips" Time management is a skill that not many people can do well. It is also difficult to teach, although Washington State University offers valuable tips on how to get yourself organized and better manage your time and energy. I found one of the best pieces of advice it gave was to keep an activity log for a week recording exactly how you spend your time all day. This would show me where all my time is going, and help me prioritize and schedule myself better in the future. I plan on keeping this activity log for the coming week. We often say "I simply do not have enough time to do this," but if you really knew where all your time was going, I think your outlook would be different. Another wise piece of advice is to make a promise to yourself at the beginning of each week outlining the things you plan on getting done. Whether it be getting half-way through a lengthy paper, or even reading a certain amount of pages, it is crucial to set very specific goals for yourself. Furthermore, prioritizing daily homework assignments is a good idea. Perhaps one could separate their tasks into "must be done right away," "could be put off until tomorrow," or "not pertinent enough to worry about it." I personally will try to employ this method of time management in the future to better get things done. It is easy to procrastinate on long-term assignments and ignore shorter work. "Time bandits" lurk in every one’s lives and take away precious time, often without the person even knowing it. A good start to beginning a better program for time management is to identify the things you waste time on, even if it is only 5-10 minutes at a time. This could be anything from visiting certain websites daily, or watching a certain television show. From there, you can eliminate these tasks and instead focus your energy on something else. Create a study-specific are where the only thing you do there is studying. This area should have no distractions, like a chatty roommate, or loud music, or even a TV or stereo in reach. Although it is important to recognize where you waste time and try to eliminate these areas, one should always allot 5-10 minute breaks during study times. It is simply too difficult for many people to concentrate for any longer, which could only lead 21 to burning out and becoming frustrated. Never give in to temptations what would take you away from getting your work done; protect your time, because you only get 24 hours each day! Long-term projects almost always present themselves as impossible tasks to finish, because they entail so much work and time to complete. Washington State University suggests making a very specific plan for yourself right from the get-go, mapping out what you will do to work on the project each day. Once again, setting goals for yourself is vitally important. From there, make sure you divide the work into reasonable pieces for each day. Setting out and trying to do too much can only result in frustration. Often, I find myself being completely overwhelmed whenever I receive a long-term assignment. This advice will help me a lot in the future to better plan out how to get the job done. "Study difficult subjects first" and "Get off the phone" are two pieces of advice I will take away with me from this website to help get better time management!