Time Management
Source: https://academicresourcecenter.harvard.edu/2023/09/27/time-management/ Parent: https://academicresourcecenter.harvard.edu/
Managing your time means scheduling your time. Figuring out a schedule that works for you and keeps you moving forward involves planning ahead, creating a weekly schedule, and setting goals for the day.
Planning Ahead
At the start of a new semester or at the start of any significant marker of time (e.g., summer, winter break), take a moment to think about your goals and to take a broad view of the upcoming time.
Below are three steps you can take to get started on planning ahead:
Write down one or two goals in each area of your academic work. Some example specific semester goals are listed below.
- Get comfortable speaking Spanish.
- Learn a programming language.
- Improve my research skills by learning how to use a library database.
- Participate one time every day in each class.
With those goals in mind, determine when, how, and whether you can accomplish them during this time period.
- Use a physical monthly calendar or use an electronic color-coded calendar to map out deadlines and requirements for the semester (e.g., paper deadlines, exam dates, application deadlines, program requirement milestones, other major events).
- With the firm dates mapped out, take each goal you have identified, break it down into steps, and schedule those steps on your calendar. In this way, you can determine if your full set of goals is realistic.
- If they will not all fit into your calendar, then you know that you will need to prioritize the goals. Prioritizing your goals enables you to make a plan to accomplish the ones that matter most.
Recognize that there are things that you can and cannot control.
- Some of your work might depend on you staying healthy, on others completing their tasks, etc., so you need to be prepared to be flexible.
- Having a system to keep track of your long-term goals will help you not forget them and will help you reevaluate and possibly reprioritize them, depending on what circumstances dictate.
- Be intentional in your assessment of your circumstances – some that seem beyond your control might not be as uncontrollable as you think.
- Be sure to enlist help from your adviser or your academic or social support network, if you do not think you can objectively assess the controllability of your situation. The Academic Resource Center is part of your academic support network; you can attend an ARC workshop on goal setting or time management or schedule an appointment with an academic coach at the ARC for individualized assistance with planning ahead.
In addition to taking a broad view of your time, it is also necessary to take narrower views of your time to keep moving ahead productively. Consider making a weekly schedule and setting daily goals.
Make a Weekly Schedule
Creating a plan for the week at the start of each week increases the odds that you will get your work done because a weekly schedule imposes structure on your time. It also helps you assess how much time you want or need to spend on various tasks and activities.
Below are four steps you can take to get started on making a weekly schedule:
Start with a blank Weekly Schedule that is broken into hour-long (or 30-minute) blocks.
You can use a printable weekly schedule template, Google calendar, or whatever calendaring system is most effective for you.
DOWNLOAD A WEEKLY SCHEDULE TEMPLATE
Be sure to include all the things you need to do in a given day, not just your work.
- Wake up time.
- Focused work blocks scheduled for your hardest work when you are at your best.
- General work blocks for tasks that require less mental energy (e.g., responding to email).
- Classes, sections, lab, study group, meetings, etc.
- Meals.
- Exercise.
- Free time.
- Buffer time.
- Bedtime
Test your schedule out for a week and pay attention to how often you deviate.
- Identify when you deviate from your schedule.
- Try to assess why you deviated. For example, did you not allocate enough time for the task because a task was more time-consuming or harder than you thought it would be? Did you get distracted? Did you spend too much on an unimportant task?
Create a schedule for the next week that makes appropriate adjustments to support more reasonable expectations.
- To do this you might need to break tasks down further, use strategies to reduce distractions, divide your time differently, etc.
- Start a new weekly schedule plan using your preferred calendar toolIf you would like help or an objective sounding board to make a weekly plan, use the ARC Scheduler to make an appointment with an Academic Coach.
- As you near the end of the semester, consider making a plan for all of Reading Period and Finals.
Set Daily Goals
Approaching each day with intention will enable you to get through the day without having to burden yourself with decisions throughout the day.
Using your Weekly Schedule template, decide what you are going to do during blocks of time you have mapped out.
- Decide in the morning (or the night before) what you are going to get done during the focused blocks of time that you have mapped out for that day in your weekly schedule. Put those specific tasks on your to-do list.
- Decide in the morning (or the night before) what you are going to get done during the general work blocks that you have mapped out for that day in your weekly schedule. Put those specific tasks on your to-do list.
Make the tasks on your to-do list achievable goals for the day.
- Failure to complete a planned task can decrease confidence and start a cycle of avoidance.
- Conversely, checking the boxes or crossing off achieved goals is hugely satisfying! Completing a task will motivate you to move on to the next one or even exceed your current goal.
Below are some specific strategies you can try out for staying on top your daily goals.
- Make an actual to-do list – in a notebook, on an index card, on your computer.
- At the end of the workday, review your to-do list, and enjoy looking at everything you got done.
If there are things that you did not get done, take a moment to evaluate those items and to reflect.
- Did you avoid a task for some reason?
- Did you underestimate how long other tasks would take?
- Did you have too many unexpected interruptions?
- Use these reflections to guide your plans for tomorrow.
If you are procrastinating on something important but not urgent, make one discrete task non-negotiable.
- Examples include incorporating new comments into a draft, emailing a professor about a letter of recommendation, or spending one hour searching for sources for your research paper.
- If you find yourself procrastinating frequently, book a meeting with an academic coach to discuss further.
Setting Achievable Goals Through Social Accountability
Accountability hours, accountability groups, and coworking spaces offer opportunities to practice setting achievable goals. They also boost productivity and provide students with both community and a sense of purpose. The ARC hosts daily Accountability Hours (M-Th), where students are invited to work in quiet company with an ARC Coach and other students either in person at 1414 Massachusetts Avenue or on Zoom. Participants share their goals for the hour and then get to work. Study groups are also welcome to use Accountability Hours as a space to connect and work.