Degree Chemistry • Your Formula for Success

Time Management Is The Key To Success In College

Online classes are a busy student's dream, but this dream can quickly twist into a nightmare for those who do not create a time management strategy.

After registering for classes and collecting professors’ syllabi, set aside time to perform a “mind sweep” as David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, suggests.

During a mind sweep, it is vital to write down every commitment and task on one’s mind. Compile a list of tasks, appointments, recurring events (i.e. regular classes) and any other miscellaneous commitments, such as work, internships and of course, schedule time for friends and family. Getting all of this down on paper makes it easy to organize which things to focus on at what time.

Pick up a calendar or create one online and grab two to six folders for each of your activities, depending on how busy you are.

According to Allen, a calendar represents the hard landscape for your day; therefore, it should be the first thing you open in the morning to guide you throughout the day. A calendar is ideal for three things:

  1. Appointments, which are day and time specific events, such as a meeting scheduled with a professor.
  2. Other to-dos that must be handled on a specific day. A day-specific to-do might be a homework assignment due by midnight that day.
  3. 3. Information that is pertinent to the day. Day-specific information includes things such as a link to a homework assignment, class project begin and end dates or a relevant event happening.

Now it is time to grab the folders, which you will use to organize your classes and/or any other ongoing projects, and print out your classes’ syllabi

Once you print out the syllabi highlight assignment deadlines, exam dates and important information, such as how to reach your professor. If the professor laid out the course week-by-week then cut this part out and staple it to the front of the folder so you can immediately know what you have done and what you need to do and when you need to do it.

Make sure to mark the date you completed and sent in the assignment in case of any digital mishaps, such as mail sent to a spam folder.

Organizing classes into project folders and maintaining an up-to-date and detailed calendar makes a busy individual’s life feel a lot more manageable, and when life is manageable, you are successful.

Information sourced from David Allen's webinar: https://secure.davidco.com/connect/login.php?login_error=true


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