My Time Management Skills Are Terrible

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

It’s my first year of college, and I am in an accelerated program.

It is kicking my naive ass.

I skated through high school with ease and did exceptionally well. For some reason, I didn’t take those “The transition from high school to college is tough” talks to heart. I’m working too much, but I cannot afford not to. I have breaks in between my classes during which I could probably get some of my massive work load at least cut down, but I cannot force myself to find a place to sit down and do it. I never had to study, so I’m not good at studying, and it is killing me.

I need to find a better way to manage what little time I have to do what I need to do, and I’m terrible at it. Actually, I don’t know if im terrible at time management or great at procrastinating, but it has to stop.

2

Getting Things Done is a book with a very useful method for time management - give that a try?

3

Your university has a place where they actually teach study skills. It’s called something like a “Student Resource Center.” It’s free. Use it.

Your university has a place where you can talk to a counselor about general coping/motivational issues. It’s called something like “Student Mental Health Services.” It’s free. Use it.

Your professors really do not want you to fail. If you are confused over an assignment or know in advance you have a scheduling conflict, go see them during office hours. Every professor states their office hours on the syllabus. 99% of professors are not dicks and want to help you succeed as long as you also make the effort.

Finally, it’s not to late to withdraw with a grade of “W” on most campuses. W does not count against your GPA. If you just have too much on your plate, sometimes there is greater valor in retreat with honor than Pyrrhic victory. Which is a flowery way of saying, it’s better to take 6 classes and get As, than 7 and get Cs.

4

Regular study groups can be a godsend for folks who have trouble getting started with things. It’s scheduled. You’re going to meet whether you study or not. And you’re going to look like a slacker if you don’t study. So study ends up happening.

It can also be handy to have someone else there if you have a question as you’re going along. If the urge to socialize is interfering at all with your study time, harness your sociability into setting up a study group.

If you end up studying alone, you may benefit from spending time planning what you need to study and when. Taking the time to write up a study schedule may seem like wasting time you don’t have, but if it prods you into action, it’s worth it.

5

Freshman year is a tough transition. Here’s some rambling advice that you can take your pick from:

How many credit hours are you taking? My friends who are professors say that for each hour in class they spend at least 3 hours out of class preparing lectures, grading, office hours, etc. They already know the material, and their 12 lecture hour a week teaching load is a 48 hour a week job. Your 15-18 credit hour course load becomes a 60-72 hour work week. You’ll be putting more time into class work than you think .

On the other hand, don’t go off too far in a bad direction. For each and every assignment ask the teacher how long it should take, and if it takes longer than that contact the teacher immediately. Or contact the teacher as soon as you start feeling lost or confused. At least now you have email/Twitter/Facebook/whatever. In my day we had to call on the telephone.

Go to class if you at all can. If the lecture suck, bring the book and read ahead, or work on your homework. Being in class helps, nearly all the time. Ask questions.

A lesson I did not learn until grad school was start your assignments right away. If you start while the material is still fresh you’ll get a better start. You might even get it done. You will certainly run into any walls much sooner, and be more likely to ask for help before the assignment is due.

That’s hard when you are behind and are trading off deadlines.

You might also be able to take some classes Pass/Fail rather than for a letter grade, and reduce the risk to your GPA. If your school allows it, it can be a good alternative to dropping a class. I took the 4th semester of foreign language Pass/Fail, even though it was required for my major. Check with your Adviser for your school’s rules and requirements.

Beyond (or instead of) my advice, I second getting as much help as you can from professors, your advisor, your Resident Assistant and/or Dorm Director, the school’s health department, and whatever else you need. Think about your course load, you may want to drop some classes or withdraw while passing.

Yes, Freshman year is a tough transition, but you can do it!

6

All of that is good advice, but I have one more little piece of the puzzle. You probably won’t believe it until years later.

Having fun and getting laid are not the most important reasons you are there. :smack: I’m speaking as a university drop-out, class of 1971.

7

For my and my university friends, we never would have graduated let alone with good grades without each other. We worked together on almost everything up until our last year. We usually strived to start our weekly assignments on Sunday, being done by Thursday giving us quality goofing off time on the weekends. Since there were always at least 5 of us working together, someone could always figure things out and/or be able to explain it to the group. Even the weakest link was a person to explain things to which cemented the rest of our knowledge. Granted, I was a math major so YMMV if you are a humanities type. (Memorization wasn’t something we had to do.)

Everyone I know who went it alone either dropped out, got kicked out or worked a ridiculous amount on their coursework.