{"id":23062,"date":"2018-12-03T13:51:01","date_gmt":"2018-12-03T19:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/?p=23062"},"modified":"2018-12-03T13:51:01","modified_gmt":"2018-12-03T19:51:01","slug":"how-to-imsa-unique-time-management-techniques","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/2018\/12\/03\/how-to-imsa-unique-time-management-techniques\/","title":{"rendered":"How to IMSA: Unique Time Management Techniques"},"content":{"rendered":"

As finals quickly approach, students are being inundated with essays, projects, and tests in the teachers\u2019 mad rush to squeeze the rest of the curriculum into the back end of the semester. For most sophomores and many juniors and seniors, it\u2019s never been more important to have good time management skills. The elusive question remains: how to develop them?<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the question I\u2019ll try to address here today. It\u2019s a little ironic, me settled into my comfy it\u2019s-Thursday-and-there\u2019s-no-homework-due-tomorrow bubble as I carefully ignore the ever-growing \u201cWeekend Homework\u201d pile at my back, but don\u2019t worry about it: we\u2019re ignoring it, after all.<\/span><\/p>\n

In all seriousness, I hope my experience with time management will help you out. Remember that what works for me might not work for you — but you\u2019ll never know until you try. And IMSA\u2019s a learning laboratory, after all (okay, I can hear you all groaning\u2026 moving on).<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Keep a planner. <\/b>If you take one thing away from this article, it\u2019s this. There are too many assignments floating around, from trivial to 20% of your grade, to trust that it won\u2019t be lost in your memory. Plus, these assignments are constantly cycling – some will go away tomorrow and more will pop up. Without a planner, it\u2019s easy for that one assignment to get lost in the shuffle. Write assignments down as soon as they\u2019re assigned and, at the end of the day, make a mental review to make sure you didn\u2019t miss anything.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Prioritize. <\/b>Sometimes, you won\u2019t have enough time to get everything done. In these cases, you have to prioritize. Even when you\u2019re able to get everything done, prioritizing will help you know where to start and help you avoid the stress of working on an assignment too close to the deadline. The planner can be useful here, too. On weekends, for example, I write out all my homework in one big list. Then, I assign each assignment a number. The ten’s digit represents a due date and the one’s number represents the order in which the assignments are due. So, the third assignment due on Tuesday will be labeled 23. Then, I follow the numbers in ascending order, with some flexibility. I know that, no matter what, I have to finish everything beginning with a 0 or a 1, because those assignments are due sometime over the weekend or on Monday, respectively.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Overestimate how long assignments will take. <\/b>If you think an assignment will take 30 minutes, plan for it to take 45. Often, the work will take longer than you expect, so overestimating allows you to account for any uncertainty. Plus, you\u2019re now more likely to finish earlier than planned, which can be a nice bonus.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Find a rhythm that works for you.<\/b> Every once in a while, I entertain the idea that I can be a time management god. My plan is to procrastinate but in reverse. As soon as something is assigned, I do it, even if it\u2019s due in a week. I frontload all my homework and enjoy the respites this grants me later on. And inevitably, as happens every time, I burn out, and I\u2019m more stressed than before. I need to pace myself, balancing my homework over longer periods of time. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to learn that this is true for most people, but it\u2019s not necessarily true for everybody. So, the key is to find the rhythm that works for you. If you find yourself unduly stressed even though you\u2019re completing all your homework on time, it might be the cadence of how you do it.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Think of your future self as a friend. <\/b>This is a quick anti-procrastinator trick for whenever you need to force yourself to do an assignment in the moment. Whenever I procrastinate, I tell myself that <\/span>I <\/span><\/i>can just do it later. After all, I\u2019m the same person, so I\u2019m not hurting anyone by pushing it back a little further. Right? Maybe, but it\u2019s not a useful mindset. Instead, think of your future self as a friend. They\u2019re counting on you to get your share of the work done. If you don\u2019t, you\u2019re making a friend pick up your slack and do things you should\u2019ve already had done. Think of how frustrated you\u2019ve been with your past self when they didn\u2019t do any work. Do you want to make your future self – your friend – feel like that?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Time management is a tricky business, and you won\u2019t become master of it in a day. But, by being dedicated and hopefully by employing some of the strategies seen here, you can keep on top of the workload and not turn in your next essay two minutes before it\u2019s due.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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