- How much do I need to study?
Not every class will require the same amount of study. You may excel at English and struggle with math. That means you may have to devote more time to studying math than to writing papers for English class if you're driving toward great grades in both subjects. It helps to keep a calendar listing the papers your instructors have assigned and their due dates. If these papers require research at the library, you'll need to plan to get yourself to the library during the hours it's open. (During finals week, your college library may be open 24/7. But it's used more as a quiet place to study than for a binge research paper!)
If this is your first year as a college student, it may take you additional time to get used to keeping current in your coursework. Weekend fun is tempting; but Monday arrives all too soon, along with papers that are due and tests.
Tests at the college level require that you review all the coursework to date. One of the most common complaints of freshmen when they come out of their first semester tests is that the professor asked questions that they weren't prepared to answer. You might find that it's worth an extra three hours to participate in a group study session. Meet with your classmates and discuss what kinds of topics each of you expects the instructor to throw your way.
Keep a diary of the hours you truly spend studying for each class, particularly during your freshman year. At the end of the week, add up the hours spent studying, or leading your sports team to victory.
List your courses, the grade you want to achieve at semester's end, and the number of hours you will commit to studying each week to earn that grade.
| Course Title |
Grade desired |
Weekly study hours |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| Total hours you need to devote to study per week: | |
- How much time do I have available?
You've got the same number of hours in the week as everyone else—168. What you do with those hours will have everything to do with whether you succeed at your goal—getting an education, plus having some fun while you're at it. If you survive on five hours of sleep each night, deduct 35 hours. That means you've got 133 hours left in your week. If you can't go on without 8 hours of sleep each night, that leaves you with 112 hours in your week.
If you commute to school, the time spent on the highway take a bite out of your week, too. If you're on the bus or carpooling as a passenger, this time can be effectively spent reading or making a list of everything you've got to complete that day. Just taking 15 minutes out of your day each evening to plan for the day ahead will give you the focus to use your time wisely.
Measure the time it takes you to run through your hygiene routine each morning. Do you spend half an hour in the tub, or is that a luxury you can't afford as a student? Do you blow dry your hair for 45 minutes, or opt for a ponytail Monday through Friday? Besides getting yourself showered and ready to hit the ground running, you should include in your time measurements the amount if time you spend weekly running to the dry cleaners or doing your own laundry. Toting a single load of laundry to the dorm laundry center, washing it, drying it, and folding it will take a good one and one-half hours. Take a book with you and read while you're at it.
Estimate the amount of time you spend each week
on the following activities: |
| Commuting to/from classes |
|
| Attending classes |
|
| Studying |
|
| Eating Meals |
|
| Sleeping |
|
| Grooming |
|
| Doing chores |
|
| Part-time job |
|
| Athletic activities |
|
| Social activities |
|
| Spiritual activities |
|
| Communicating via email, telephone, letters |
|
| Pure relaxation |
|
| Total amount of committed time: |
|
If you're beyond 168 hours, you're out of luck. But there are ways to streamline the necessary activities in your day. Plus working more effectively can make you more productive. If you work at peak speed for three hours a day, you'll be able to accomplish more in less time.
- It's study time? Do you know where your books are?
Where you study makes all the difference in how effective your studying is. Pick a place that allows you to concentrate and one that's accessible to the tools you need. If you've got coursework that involves sharp pencils, rulers, or computers, you'd best be parked at your dorm room desk, or plan ahead and pack the essentials in your backpack. If you've got reading to do, you'll need a quiet place without distractions to plow through that treatise on Revolutionary War history and it's impact on the economies of Europe. If you're unfocused, you'll spend more time doing less and reading the chapters over and over again. And that leaves less time for fun!
| Tried and true study spots. Pick your favorite: |
| Dorm room | |
| College library | |
| Science lab | |
| Don't have one | |
| Anyplace! | |
Notice that we've left the frat house game room off of our list! Go figure! Professional writers tell us that they establish a routine, writing in the same location, at the same time of day, sipping on the same coffee drink, listening to the same quiet music in the background, day after day after day. Those writers who do lunch make it a habit to eat the same lunch—maybe it's tuna fish or maybe it's fruit—day after day, too. The reason: it eliminates the need for them to spend any brain cells or energy creating an optimum work setting. They have identified what helps them work and what distracts them and organized their lives so that they are surrounding by positive reinforcement rather than negative.
Your residential situation may require that you post a note on your dorm room door when you are studying and don't want to be interrupted. If your roommate wants to play music while studying, you might want to invest in a set of earphones that you wear with no music piped into them!
-
What time's the best time for study?
For every one of us there is a time that we're on top of our game. To win at the study game, it's important that you know when you're at your most alert and focused. If you track this for one week, you'll be able to identify what times are optimum for you to hit the books. Jut a note: your attention span may be impacted by whether you've eaten or not. Keep some fresh fruit on hand to munch while you study. Fruit travels well in your backpack and is low maintenance so that you can operate in high gear.
- Early a.m.
- Mid-morning
- Around noon
- Early p.m.
- Late afternoon
- Around dinner time
- In the evening
- Late evening
- Midnight
- Way early in the morning
- None of the above
- List the top three things that hinder your studies:
a.______________________________________________________________________
b.______________________________________________________________________
c.______________________________________________________________________
-
List three things you can and will do to minimize the above distractions:
a.______________________________________________________________________
b.______________________________________________________________________
c.______________________________________________________________________
- Design a plan that fits your study style
Here's my plan for the next month (Remember, it's a proven fact that it takes 21 days of consistent behavior to change a poor behavior pattern. So give this plan at least three solid weeks to take hold.)
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Use a daytimer.
Across the board, time management experts recommend using lists to track where you're going. Get yourself a date book with ample writing space on each date. Each evening, take 15 minutes to review the next day's schedule and to make a list in your date book of what's to be accomplished that day. You can prioritize your list of "To Do's" by numbering them or by putting a star to the left of each item that's critical it get done.
Tackle the hard stuff first.
Again, time management experts suggest that when you first sit down at your desk each day you devote an hour or two to the most difficult task on your plate. You'll work at your peak level on the most important task at hand, thus reducing the overall time you need to devote to that task. Once you've spent the allotted time on the most critical issue on your "To Do" list, then go on to handle some of the low priority, simple tasks, i.e. reviewing your foreign language spelling list.
Make contact when it makes sense.
If you've got lots of scheduling to do—appointments or interviews—set aside a time early in the morning that makes your calls most effective. If you're trying to reach professors, call when you know they're not in the middle of class. If you're scheduling a doctor's appointment, call when the receptionist is answering, not the answering service who will only tell you to call back. You can minimize the time waiting for people to call back by actually completing that conversation.
Check it off.
Once you've accomplished a task, check it off your list. It will be satisfying to see what tasks and assignments you've completed at the end of the day. Also, it will be a good reminder of what you need to incorporate in your next day's calendar.
Cluster your work.
If you've got lots of Xeroxing to do, get organized and do it all at once. If you need to buy school supplies, make a list and buy them on one trip to the store rather than making several trips. Every minute saved means more time left for you.
Take note.
When you've got a class or meeting scheduled, make sure you note it in your daytimer. Use your daytimer as a resource and check it a couple of times a day to refresh your memory and to keep you on track.
Write down your goals.
No matter what your goals are, make a note in your daytimer. You'll never get to where you're headed if you don't know where you've been. If you want to lose 5 pounds by Christmas, write it down. If that involves skipping pizza every night at 11, make that note too. If you want to work as a DJ at the college station, make a note to find out about when the organizational meeting will be held. Write that down, too. Keep your daytimer for each year gone by in your financial papers for that year. That way, you'll be able to refer back to it when questions come up in the future, and you'll be able to enjoy reviewing how far you've come!
Time
management is one of the most valuable tools available to
you as a student. Using time management skills successfully
will allow you to have control of your life. . Print out and
complete our checklist. Once you understand the number of
hours you spend each week on certain tasks, you can make changes
to dedicate more time to some tasks and less to other. You'll
become more effective in fewer hours.