Time Management

"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the things that you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not." - Thomas Huxley

How many times have you planned to do something only to procrastinate or fail to carry out the plan? While there are many explanations for your failure to implement your plan, analysis of this failure has to start with the plan itself. Even if you do not want to do the work, to be successful it is necessary to stay motivated and make yourself do what needs to be done. Many students often say they will "try" to do the work, but unfortunately the definition of "try" in daily English means: "Forget it - I really don't want to do this and I won't do it. Further, when asked of my progress, I will employ excuses that relieve me of the responsibility to change the behaviour." All of these problems occur in school life. The good news is that you can employ effective time management strategies to overcome these obstacles and be successful throughout your career. These include planning, implementing the plan, and evaluating the plan.

Life in school has many distractions that can keep students from managing their time and keeping up with their studies. For example a boy named Nicky. Partying Nicky has tendencies to procrastinate and not manage his time wisely. In short, he is going to fail his subject if he does not shape up and plan his work and activities. Nicky needs to understand there are three main objectives that he must stick to or else his planning will fail. The first is to be ready for an exam 2-3 days before the test is administered. Second, use his daytime hours for studying, because he realises he wants to be with his friends in the evening. Lastly, he needs to distribute his studying hours so as not to cram. To plan his time successfully, he should compare his academic studies to a full-time job, thus leaving his night time hours for fun time. This will help him maintain a healthy balance between work and fun.

After Nicky plans his time he must implement the plan. To implement his plan he needs to stick to his daily and weekly schedule. One way to do this is to identify precise products he will produce during specified time periods. When he completes a task, he crosses it off the list. He should plan to study between classes, when the ideas are still fresh from the class. Further, he should visualise completing the task successfully. Visualisation, properly applied, is a powerful strategy. He should also keep in mind - two hours of studying during the day for every one hour of class time is far more beneficial than cramming for six hours the night before the exam.

Lastly, Nicky needs to monitor himself and his work. For example, he could pretend he is the employer at a large manufacturing corporation. According to his plans and how well he implemented them, he must decide if he should receive a reward as a productive employee, or if he would be fired for poor performance. Put another way, Nicky could monitor himself by answering the following questions each night:

"If he worked in a corporation and he was the President, would he hire himself the way he behaved today?"

"Am I proud of my performance today?"

Effective Time Management strategies lead to success; ineffective Time Management strategies lead to failure. It's that simple. Time Management strategies help students to stay motivated and on top of their deadlines for projects, help eliminate procrastination, and help to balance academic and fun time to maintain a healthy lifestyle in school.