QUICK ASSESSMENT

Read each statement in the brief self-evaluation tool below, and check the answer that best applies to you. There are no right or wrong answers.

	Always	Usually	Sometimes	Rarely	Never
I like to be given strict deadlines for each task. It helps me stay organized and on track.
I would rather be 15 minutes early than 1 minute late.
I like to improvise instead of planning everything out ahead of time.
I prefer to be able to manage when and how I do each task.
I have a difficult time estimating how long a task will take.
I have more motivation when there is an upcoming deadline. It helps me focus.
I have difficulty keeping priorities in the most beneficial order.

This exercise is intended to help you recognize some things about your own time management style. The important part is for you to identify any areas where you might be able to improve and to find solutions for them. This reading will provide some solutions, but there are many others that can be found by researching time management strategies.

After you have decided your best response to each statement, think about what they may mean in regard to potential strengths and/or challenges for you when it comes to time management in college. If you are a person that likes strict deadlines, what would you do if you took a course that only had one large paper due at the end? Would you set yourself a series of mini deadlines that made you more comfortable and that kept things moving along for you? Or, if you have difficulty prioritizing tasks, would it help you to make a list of the tasks to do and order them, so you know which ones must be finished first?

Whether you are an excellent time manger or need improvement, the following activities are meant to help develop this skill.

Please complete both of the activities that follow. These activities are about time management, so should be done at the start of your week, in order to use them!

Managing Your Time Activity

The simplest way to manage your time is to accurately plan for how much time it will take to do each task, and then set aside that amount of time. How you divide the time is up to you. If it is going to take you five hours to study for a final exam, you can plan to spread it over five days, with an hour each night, or you can plan on two hours one night and three hours the next. What you would not want to do is plan on studying only a few hours the night before the exam and find that you fell very short on the time you estimated you would need. If that were to happen, you would have run out of time before finishing, with no way to go back and change your decision. In this kind of situation, you might even be tempted to "pull an all-nighter," which is a phrase that has been used among college students for decades. In essence it means going without sleep for the entire night and using that time to finish an assignment. While this method of trying to make up for poor planning is common enough to have a name, rarely does it produce the best work.

Of all the parts of time management, accurately predicting how long a task will take is usually the most difficultand the most elusive. Part of the problem comes from the fact that most of us are not very accurate timekeepers, especially when we are busy applying ourselves to a task. The other issue that makes it so difficult to accurately estimate time on task is that our estimations must also account for things like interruptions or unforeseen problems that cause delays.?

When it comes to academic activities, many tasks can be dependent upon the completion of other things first, or the time a task takes can vary from one instance to another, both of which add to the complexity and difficulty of estimating how much time and effort are required.

For example, if an instructor assigned three chapters of reading, you would not really have any idea how long each chapter might take to read until you looked at them. The first chapter might be 30 pages long while the second is 45. The third chapter could be only 20 pages but made up mostly of charts and graphs for you to compare. By page count, it might seem that the third chapter would take the least amount of time, but actually studying charts and graphs to gather information can take longer than regular reading.?

To make matters even more difficult, when it comes to estimating time on task for something as common as reading, not all reading takes the same amount of time. Fiction, for example, is usually a faster read than a technical manual. But something like the novelFinnegan's Wake by James Joyce is considered so difficult that most readers never finish it.

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Time Estimate Table

Instructions

Activity #1

Since, many people are not truly aware of how they actually spend their time. They make assumptions about how much time it takes to do certain things, but they never really take an accurate account.

For the first activity, write down all the things you think you will do tomorrow, and estimate the time you will spend doing each. Then track each thing you have written down to see how accurate your estimates were.

Activity	Estimated Time	Actual Time
Practice Quiz	5 minutes	15 minutes
Lab Conclusions	20 minutes	35 minutes
Food shopping	45 minutes	30 minutes
Drive to work	20 minutes	20 minutes
Physical Therapy	1 hour	50 minutes

Obviously, you will not want to get caught up in too much tedious detail, but you will want to cover the main activities of your dayfor example, working, eating, driving, shopping, gaming, being engaged in entertainment, etc. After you have completed this activity for a single day, you may consider doing it for an entire week so that you are certain to include all of your activities.

Many people that take this sort of personal assessment of their time are often surprised by the results. Some even make lifestyle changes based on it.

Activity #2

Now that you have an estimate of your daily activities, it is time to do the second activity, creating a weekly schedule. Start the schedule when you generally wake-up and end it when you generally go to bed. Although your schedule might not be 100% accurate, do your best to schedule what you need to do as well as your free time. Don't forget about work, your classes, time to eat, time to pick up your kids, etc.

Create a schedule for the week and try to stick to it. It could be general and used for almost any week or be specific like the example below. Below is an example of a schedule created in a table. Keep it simple, but try to be as specific as you can.

	Monday (2/14)	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
8:00-10:00		Work		Work
10:00-12:00	Algebra	Work	Algebra	Work	Algebra	10 a.m.-11 a.m. Only if needed	Work
12:00-2:00	Lunch/study	1 p.m. English Comp	Lunch/study	1 p.m. English Comp	Lunch/study	Family picnic	Work
2:00-4:00	History	English Comp	History	English Comp	History	Family picnic
4:00-6:00	Study for Algebra quiz.	Grocery	Study for History exam.	Study for History exam.	5 p.m.-6 p.m. Rewrite and polish final draft.	Family picnic	Laundry
6:00-7:00	Write outline; look for references.	Research references to support outline; look for good quotes.	Research presentation project.	Write second page and closing draft	Create presentation.	Meet with Darcy.	Prepare school stuff for next week.
7:00-8:00	Free time	Free time	Write paper introduction and first page draft.	Research presentation project.	Create presentation.		Free time

Success Skill: Managing Your Time Activity COMM-1010