TIME MANAGEMENT

CONTEXT
Consider Your Credit Load
-You need at least 30 hours (up to 45) of self-study for 1
credit.
-You (normally) have ten weeks for a 3-credit subject/course.

=>At least 90 hours of self-study over a 10-week course.

And that is ONLY one subject.
 Subject Workload
Each subject you are enrolled in requires you to spend a minimum of 10 hours of
your time per week
This includes all on-campus lectures, tutorials and practicals as well as independent
study (revising, assignment work, readings etc.)
A full-time study load of four subjects will require at least 40 hours of your time
per week
It is important to manage your time to be successful and achieve balance between
university, work, social activities and family.
-If you’re not working, you may find that you have fifty to seventy hours available for
study. You won’t need all of them for study.
-If you are working, however, this number may be substantially smaller, depending on
the number of hours that you work each week.
TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS
I. What is time management?
II. Why is time management important?
III. How to manage time effectively?
IV. Time management Applications for students
WHAT IS TIME MANAGEMENT?
AGREE?

You have a lot of time to study on certain days

but very little on others.
WHY IS TIME MANAGEMENT IMPORTANT?
1. Work faster – avoid PROCRASTINATION
2. Reduce stress and accept it
3. (Try to) Have more energy
4. Create discipline
5. Be more successful or make it habit
6. Learn more (LEARN, UNLEARN, and RELEARN)
HOW TO MANAGE TIME EFFECTIVELY?
Consider Your Use of Time: Take a few minutes to answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to the

1. Current use of time following questions.

1. Have you estimated how many hours you need to study this semester?
2. Do you tend to complete your assignments on time?
3. Have you estimated how long it takes you to read ten pages in each of your
textbooks?
4. Do you begin working on long-term assignments early in the semester?
5. Do you make lists of things to do in your head rather than on paper?
6. Do you find that you go out even when you know you should be studying?
7. Do you schedule time to study for exams?
8. Are you working at a job more than twenty hours a week?
9. Do you know exactly what you are going to work on when you sit down to
study?
10. Do you do the assignments from your favorite class first?
Consider Your Use of Time: Take a few minutes to answer ‘Yes’
or ‘No’ to the following questions.
1. Have you estimated how many hours you need to study this
semester?
2. Do you tend to complete your assignments on time?
3. Have you estimated how long it takes you to read ten pages in
each of your textbooks?
4. Do you begin working on long-term assignments early in the
semester?
5. Do you make lists of things to do in your head rather than on
paper?
6. Do you find that you go out even when you know you should be
studying?
7. Do you schedule time to study for exams?
8. Are you working at a job more than twenty hours a week?
9. Do you know exactly what you are going to work on when you
sit down to study?
10. Do you do the assignments from your favorite class first?
HOW TO MANAGE TIME EFFECTIVELY?
1. Current use of time (Quiz)
• Give 1 point for each yes answer to all questions except
5, 6, 8 and 10
• Give 1 point for each no answer to questions 5, 6, 8 and
10.
à A low score indicates that you need some help in
managing your time now.
à A high score indicates that you are already using
many good time-management techniques.
TIME MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
2. Taking control of your time

“Don’t let time manage you; you should learn, instead, to

manage your time.”

J
TIME MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
3. Setting priorities to achieve your goals
• Decide which goals and objectives are most important or
urgent to you
• Find an appropriate way to balance between an academic
schedule and your personal time
§Make lists
§Decide on the best order to do things
To use the priority matrix, it is best to review your tasks on a daily basis. Each day, ask yourself:
-Which of my tasks needs doing within the next 48 hours?
Those are the ‘Urgent’ tasks.
-Of the urgent tasks, which ones are more important?
It is a good idea to list your tasks in order of importance, rather than giving them an absolute ‘important/not
important’ distinction.
-Of the non-urgent tasks, which ones are more important?
Again, it is a good idea to list them in order, rather than giving them an absolute distinction.
-Now use the answers to these questions to allocate your tasks to the boxes in the priority matrix,
following these rules:
Each box should contain no more than about seven or eight tasks.
-Start with the ‘Do Now’ box.
Crucially, don’t put off urgent or important things just because they are unpleasant. They won’t get any
better for procrastinating.
TIME MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
4. Staying focused
§Stick with your goals
§Begin with your priorities

§Learn to say NO
§(TRY TO) Find out how long things take
FIND OUT HOW LONG THINGS TAKE
~ PREPARE FOR TIMEBOXING
Time yourself when you read ten pages in each of your textbooks. You may have noticed that
it didn’t take you the same amount of time to read the ten-page selections in all of your texts.
Why the times were different? Your interest in the material makes a difference in how fast you
read.
Other factors that can affect your reading rate are the difficulty of the text material, your
prior knowledge of the subject, the size of the page, the size of the print, and the number of
pictures or charts on a page.
Whether you highlight, take notes, predict questions, make word cards, or use other active
strategies as you read will also impact your time.
Make a note in the front cover of each text, for example, 10 pages = 20 minutes. When you
have a thirty-page reading assignment, you’ll know that you need one hour to complete it.
WHAT IS PROCRASTINATION?
“to put off till some future time, to defer”.
-Its root is from two Latin words, pro, meaning onward, and crastinus, meaning ‘of tomorrow’.

Forgive yourself. You are human: Accept that you are sometimes going to slip up, become
distracted and have a bad day. It’s more important to move on than to dwell on your mistakes.
 TIME MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
5. Overcoming procrastination
§Say to yourself, “I need to do this now. I will pay a price if I do not do this now.”
§If it will take less than 2 minutes, just do it now.
§Remind yourself of the possible consequences if you do not get down to work.
But, think about how good it will feel when you have done it.
§Create a to-do list
§Break down big jobs into smaller steps
§Combine several activities OR arrange to do the task with SOMEONE else
§Take control of your study environment
§Do not make or take phone calls during planned study sessions. (minimize
distractors)
DO OR SCREW?
Think about how good it will feel Think about the pain of not doing
when you have done it. it.
The feeling of having completed it Just as we are motivated by reward, we
generally, and the great feeling of are also motivated by fear of loss. The
having done something worthwhile that thought of the pain of losing out by not
you were dreading. The key is to focus doing something can be much more
on the end goal, not on the task needed motivating than the reward of having
to accomplish it. This means thinking done it. For example, if you don’t go
about how good you always feel after and have that conversation with your
taking exercise, or the cup of tea you’ll boss about your pay rise, you won’t get
have once your deadline is met and your one this year.
report sent off.
 TIME MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
6. Maintaining a “To-Do” list
§Use it to keep track of all the tasks you need to remember
§Develop a system for prioritizing the items on your lists
§Break tasks down into smaller steps, and be as precise as possible
§Cross each completed task
§(TIME FOR ACTIVITY-PREP for T)
Make the items on your to-do list specific, realistic and simple — don’t secretly
pack eight or 10 tasks inside one huge item, like “finish project.” Instead, break your
project into small, discrete components.
“TO-DO” LIST
MAKE YOUR LIST WORK FOR YOU

It is a tool, not your master.

The best way to learn to write a to-do list, in practice,
is to try things out, and find out what works for you.

YOU ARE NOT A ROBOT!

TIME MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
7. Creating a Workable Schedule for Study
§Listen to your body clock
§Arrange timetable wisely and effectively
Identify peak times. Know when you work at your best.
TIME MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
8. Using a Daily Planner
REALISTIC PREDICTION OF HOW EACH TASK WILL TAKE IS THE KEY

Focus on one task at a time

ACTIVITIES (TIME MANAGEMENT CROSSWORD
PUZZLE)
• 10 groups
• 10 minutes
• 19 questions
• Find the word listed below in each crossword based on the given
clues. Circle them with a pencil or use a marker to highlight the
letters.
ACTIVITIES
Activity 1: Look at the table below and check the items below
that apply to you. This list will help you to investigate your
current use of time. How many items are unchecked? Work in
groups to discuss possible solutions to those unchecked items.
¨ It is important to feel that I am in control of my time.
¨ I am aware of how my background (family, culture, lifestyle, commitments, gender,
age, and other factors) influences my approach to time management.
¨ I set academic and personal goals every term to guide how I prioritize my time.
¨ I am able to focus on the task at hand instead of getting distracted or
procrastinating.
¨ I know my most productive times of the day.
¨ I use a daily or weekly planner or some other type of planning device (a PDA, for
example) to keep track of my commitments.
¨ I maintain a “to-do” list to keep track of the tasks I must complete.
¨ I am able to balance my social life and my need for personal time with my academic
requirements.
¨ I am able to say “no” to requests so that I do not become overextended.
¨ I am punctual and almost never turn in an assignment late, skip class, or miss an
ACTIVITIES
Activity 2: Look at the normal-day-timetable of a student. Make
your own timetable and add notes to the time slots that needed
to be adjusted.