Time Management
October 17, 2017
Time management is a worthy skill to have especially during a busy time in your life.
Especially for the kids who do several extracurricular activities, along with homework, family
activities, and getting enough rest at night. It is said that teenagers and young adults need at
least 8-10 hours of sleep a night, and knowing all the things some students do it can be very
hard to get to sleep on time.
From a standpoint of a teenager, most difficulties are:
● Laziness
● Wanting to sleep all the time
● Video games
● Sports practices and sport games
Most coaches don’t give much leeway for having homework; you either come to the practice
and games or you’re off the team.
Ways to manage time include:
● Carry a schedule and record all your thoughts
● Keep an appointment book
● Engage in thoughts, activities, and conversations
● Schedule time for interruptions
● Take the first 30 minutes of every day to plan out your day
● Have a do not disturb sign
● Do not instantly give people your attention
● Block out all other distractions
● Remember it is impossible to get everything done
Time management skills include:
● Goal setting
● Prioritisation
● Self awareness
● Motivation
● Planning
● Communication skills
What are some of the reasons you can’t manage time?
What could you do to improve this?
Chrissy Bowles • Oct 20, 2017 at 3:01 pm
Here’s another technique to help with managing time…it’s called the Pomodoro Technique which is named after those tomato shaped timers that some people use in the kitchen. Anyway, research shows that people procrastinate because the idea of doing something that you really don’t want to do has a similar effect on the brain as experiencing physical pain. With the Pomodoro Technique, you set a timer for 25 minutes. For that 25 minutes, you work on the task you don’t want to do, but there’s a trick…focus on the 25 minutes itself. Don’t think about how much you hate the task, think about using that 25 minute chunk of time to get something done. Focus on the process of using the 25 minutes. When the timer goes off, take a break or call it quits depending on what you have to do. It does help to focus on the process instead of the task. I learned this technique when I took a course called Learning How to Learn on Coursera.
Really, if I had my way, I would just get a pet Zygon to take care of all my business for me. No one would know the difference.
jarp • Oct 22, 2017 at 7:07 am
Chrissy,
Thanks for posting this idea. I use this technique all of the time. I often get a huge project done by extending my times to 45 minutes of work, then a 15 minute break, 45 minutes of work, break, etc. This is a great time management tool for students and adults.
Matthew Canaan • Oct 20, 2017 at 2:56 pm
Its a lose-lose situation for athletes, because if you can’t get to your practice/games, you get kicked off, and if you go to the practice/games, but don’t have time to do your work, your GPA plummets and you end up kicked off the team.