Many students enter the month of February motivated by their new classes and setting goals in line with their New Year’s resolutions. For others, the academic pressures of a new semester along with the social expectations feel overwhelming and cause excess stress. To avoid issues of this kind, we suggest talking to your student about these time management tips, so they can continue their success as the academic year continues:
- Utilize Calendars and/or Planners. These tools can help your student to manage time and other commitments. By encouraging them to use these items, your student can effectively plan how they spend their time and have a visual of important dates, events, and holidays to keep them on track.
- Make a To-Do List. To-do lists can help because they provide a visual reminder of everything that your student needs to complete. A to-do list helps your student not waste time trying to remember what all they have to do. Using a to-do-list along with a calendar, your student can see what they need to accomplish and what time they have available, and then they can block time to work on their to-do list.
- Once your student has a working to do list, encourage them to assign each of their tasks into one of three categories: Must Do Now, Should Do Soon, and Can Do Later. Then, they can devote most of their time to the tasks in the “Must Do Now” category. Make sure to encourage your student to prioritize items in the “Can Do Later” category as well. While working out and eating three meals a day may not seem as important to them when they have a paper due, these tasks will give them energy, relieve stress, and keep them healthy, so they can continue with their demanding schedule.
- Create Time Management Goals. Setting goals will help hold your student accountable. Encourage them to estimate the time it will take to finish a task or assignment and use that as motivation. Goals should be realistic, achievable, and take into account the quality of work they want to produce.
- Finish the Items on the To-Do List. Making the list is easy but not so easy to complete, especially when tasks on their lists are somewhat undesirable. For those big tasks that bog down your student, suggest taking 10 minutes each day to work on them. The list may take a few days to complete, but your student will not be maxed out by the end of it as they would if they completed the task all in one sitting.
- Plan Ahead. When your student knows of an assignment, project, or meeting coming up, make sure to remind them to mark out time in their day (via their planner) to work on the task. If they think they might need help on an assignment, whether it be tutoring or someone to bounce ideas off, remind them to make a plan so they are able to stay on track. When working on a group project, making a plan becomes even more important. While the group may divide the work among the members, the task of meeting as a group can be more difficult due to differing schedules and time commitments. Planning ahead can greatly reduce any issues.