Time Management
"The bad news is time flies.  The good news is you are the 
pilot."
There are only 24 hours in a day!
	"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly 
the same number of hours per day that were given to 
Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, 
Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert 
Einstein."
Time management skills are essential for successful people.  
Simply put, time management is the process of applying practical 
techniques to your daily life that will enable you to effectively do 
all that you need to do, and give you time to also do the things 
you want to do.  Developing effective time-management skills 
requires you to: 
*	Analyze your current schedule
*	Analyze your preferences, skills, strengths and weaknesses
*	Take an accurate inventory of your obligations and responsibilities, and prioritize those
*	Set goals (both short-term and long-term)
*	Minimize distractions, and
*	Learn to make and abide by plans and schedules
Analyze your current schedule	
*	This is an excellent get-to-know-yourself exercise, as you find that the time 
you could have been using productively was actually spent in on a less 
productive activity.  

*	Tracking your time requires you to be honest and objective about how you 
have spent your time (did you intend to read the chapter for your biology 
class, but end up watching the UK - Tennessee women's game*) 
Analyze your preferences, skills, strengths, and 
weaknesses
*	Preferences.  Do you require 9 hours of sleep to 
function well*  Do you treasure your late evening ritual 
of taking a bath and reading a book*  

*	Skills.  Are you a natural multi-tasker*  Do you work 
well under pressure*  Do you work to deadlines*  Can 
you focus on your homework while the kids are playing 
videogames and the dog is barking and dinner is 
cooking*
Analyze your preferences, skills, strengths, and 
weaknesses
*	Strengths. Some people maintain their focus despite chaos all 
around them.  Others seem to have an innate sense of 
perspective that allows them to prioritize while maintaining 
flexibility and adaptability.
  
*	Weaknesses.  You may be aware that you are stubborn, that 
you do not multi-task well at all, that you can't function on less 
than 7 hours of sleep, or that you tend to get very impatient and 
short-tempered when you are tired and stressed out.  Being 
aware of your limitations and weaknesses allows you to work 
around them.

Take an accurate inventory of your obligations 
and responsibilities, and prioritize those

*	Make a list of the responsibilities you have - the things 
you absolutely have to do.

*	Rank them in order of the time they require. 
Set goals (both short-term and long-term) 

*	Short-term goals may include the immediate future 
(getting the laundry caught up, spending time with your 
significant other) as well as those goals you would like 
to achieve within the next few weeks or months (make 
an A on your mid-terms, finish a project early, etc.) 
Set goals (both short-term and long-term) 

*	Long-term goals may include graduating from 
college, owning a home, starting a family, 
attending graduate school, and so on.  These goals 
are met through the careful fulfillment of short-
term goals.
Minimize distractions
*	 Some interruptions from your friends, from your 
significant other, or from family needing help must be 
accepted despite the delay that this imposes on you. 
You must, however, be careful that distractions and 
interruptions do not completely divert you from 
achieving your goals. 
Learn to make and abide by plans and schedules 

*	Planning is the process by which you work out what you want to 
achieve, and then think through the who, what, when, where, why 
and how of achieving that goal in the most effective way possible. 
*	Planning can be informal (to-do lists, for example), or formal (more 
detailed, carefully thought out and methodically created schedules 
or plans). 
Summary...
*	The keys to effectively managing your time are careful and 
honest evaluation of your life and the demands on your 
time, dedication to goal-setting and defining, and 
willingness to learn to set boundaries and abide within 
them. 
Time Management Workshop


Prepared by LeeAnn A. Helton
BSCTC Center for Enrichment Resources




This presentation may be cited, reproduced and/or used for academic purposes with requested permission of BSCTC Center for Enrichment Resources