Managing Time and Work

Managing yourself, your environment, your time, and your work are significant parts of college learning. The one that my students report as most difficult is managing time and workload.

Four steps to manage time and work:

1. Identify what you need to do and the expectations you need to meet
2. Understand how much time you have to work with
3. Schedule and prioritize
4. Manage yourself as you work

In order to manage your time and work, you need to know what must get done. Not everything needs to get done, and not everything that feels urgent or rushed is a priority. Only 20% of the tasks you need to do have meaningful contributions to your success.As a student, this means that you should: Know what work is due and when Carefully read the expectations for each assignment Determine how much time you need (including planning and proofreading) Check to make sure your expectation of the work and difficulty matches what your instructor expects	Expectations and needs ⤸
Time available ⤹	Once you’ve identified the work and expectations, you can begin to look at your schedule. If you are keeping a consistent schedule, where you document what you do and when you have free time, fitting in work means Identifying empty or flexible blocks of time in your schedule Blocking time for specific assignments or tasks Your understanding of the time you have may not match what you actually have- you could have more free time that you’re spending unwisely (for example, reading your phone instead of preparing for an exam) or you might find that you are low on time because you’ve scheduled too much in your week and need to make choices on what will (and will not) get done.
Once you have your time blocked for your most important assignments, you’ll want to get to work and make sure that you are managing yourself. If you understand what works and doesn’t work for you, you will be able to:	Schedule & priorities ⤸
Managing yourself as you work	Understand what you need to do and the level of the work you need to complete. Identify what you need to do and the expectations you need to meet. Many students (and non-students) want to start working without pausing to make sure they understand what they need to do. Knowing what you need to do before you begin  helps you block out the correct amount of time.

Estimating time

Estimating time is difficult- and many adults struggle with knowing how long something will take. Instructors may give you an idea of timing (for example, saying that this assignment should take about 1 hour) however, your timing may vary based on:

• how fast you read
• how much you need to read
• how often you need to refer to readings
• how well your notes work for you
• how long you concentrate on writing
• your ability to block out distractions

If you had a great deal of free time and few responsibilities, you could schedule everything as if it was the worst-case scenario related to timing. Few students have this kind of time and need to be cautious in scheduling the time they do have.

When you have a task, estimate:

• O:  The best case (optimistic) time it will take to complete if there are no complications
• P:  The worse case (pessimistic) time it will take to complete if many things go wrong
• M:  The most likely amount of time that you’ll need to complete the tasks

You can use these numbers in a 3 point Program Analysis Review Technique (PERT) formula. This formula is simple and quick but gives you a better target for your timing.

PERT formula:     (O + 4M +P) / 6

Let’s try it:

• Imagine you need to complete a lab report for biology. From previous experience, you know that a lab report could take 3-8 hours to complete. You can shorten this time by making sure you have information and data ready before you sit down to write and by reviewing a model lab rapport before beginning. You decide that the lab report estimate is:
• 2 hours O
• 4 hours ML
• 6 hours P

You then complete the formula to find that you should budget:
(2 +4(4)+ 6)/6  =  6   in this case, you’d use 6 hours as your time for scheduling

Using three-point calculation will help you to better decide what time you’ll need to complete tasks and use more accurate estimates in your work.

Scheduling forwards and backwards

Scheduling time requires you to know what you need to do, how long it will take, and the time you have available. It also means you decide how to schedule.

When you are scheduling your time, identify two key dates:

• The day you could begin
• The day you need to end.

If you have a general idea of how long something will take, you can schedule from the start date and see where that puts your ending date.

If you have a paper to write and estimate that it will take 8 hours, from reading and finding resources, planning, drafting (writing), and revisions, you might match it against your week, starting with tomorrow as your first available day.

Imagine that tomorrow is Monday, and the paper is due Sunday at 11:59pm.

2 options:

Some advice as you work:

Tackle the most critical task first

• When scheduling, be sure to schedule the assignment or task that you need to do the most FIRST. By prioritizing tasks that need to be done, you’ll be more likely to have them done- and that is a good feeling!

Use your time between classes

• In addition to free time in your schedule, you can also use the time between classes. There are many places on campus and off that you can use for calm, quiet work- including the campus library, cafeteria, coffee shop, or even an empty classroom. Don’t forget to plan the time between your classes into your free time!

Build-in breaks

• Concentration is hard work, and you’ll often benefit from short, active breaks. Many students plan time to get up and walk around, to get a drink or snack, or to otherwise move and stimulate their brains and bodies, especially during work sessions.

Stay motivated

Staying motivated will make you more likely to complete your work. Wanting to do the work and scheduling the work are necessary. It is just as important to monitor how you are doing and to make adjustments to help you stay focused and motivated.

Some tips to increase your motivation while working:

• Remind yourself why you are doing this work
• Consider the consequences of not finishing the task
• Visualize how completing the task will feel
• Break your work into steps, and when you take a break, mark off what you have done and look at what is next