Time and Money Management

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TIME AND MONEY MANAGEMENT

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Name: CMD # Life Skills Lesson#1:

Time Management

Instructions: Read through the following lesson carefully. You will also need todownload the assignment for this lesson. Print out the assignment and complete by hand making surethat your name and CMDS number are on the assignment.

Wyoming students

must turn in theassignments to the

Student Services Office

by

Friday, August 1, 2003

to receive credit.

Pennsylvaniastudents

should turn in the assignments to the

Registrar’s Office

by

Friday, August 1, 2003

to receivecredit.OverviewManaging time is a concept that some people have a hard time grasping. After all,there are only 24 hours each day, 168 hours each week to eat, sleep, work, relax, exercise, attend classand study. That does not leave much excess time for the thing that we all like the most, having fun. Inorder to have time for all the above, we must find a plan that is effective and simple to implement.What is the main reason for managing one’s time? The answer is to provide structure to one’slife and piece of mind. By knowing how your time will be spent in advance, you will spend less timesweating the small stuff. Time management initially requires dedication, but before long you will findyourself automatically doing the things described in this lesson, while knowing that you will have morefree time to do the things you really want to be doing. For some people, this is their first time being ina situation that requires time management. They are unsure about what lies ahead for them. Thegeneral idea is that “I have freedom like I have never had, plus I will have so much free time, I don’tknow what I am going to do with myself.” Before long it will be these people that will realize they areat the front of the line for a time management plan. The person that thinks they have too much freetime is probably not concentrating in the right areas and needs to be guided towards the right path.Your time should be divided into healthy segments that make your day run smoothly and make youmind run smoothly as well.Identifying Time StealersIn order to develop an effective timemanagement program, you need to be able to identify those things that “steal” your time. Somecommon time stealers are:Interruptions—telephone and personal visitorsProcrastination andindecisionUnclear objectives and prioritiesLack of planningStress and fatigueInability to say “No” toothersPersonal disorganizationLet’s look at each of these time stealers more in depth, so you knowexactly what you are dealing with. The telephone, drop-in visitors, and the inability to say “No” toothersEven though the telephone is a great form of communication, it can also be one of the mostdistracting. Have you ever thought about how the telephone seems to ring right when you sit down tostudy? It often seems that the person on the other end of the line has ESP about what you are doing.You must be able to either ignore the telephone ringing, or be able to tell the person on the other endthat you will call them back at another time. Another problem that arises is that of drop-in visitors.How many times have you been sitting in your apartment, only to find your study time interrupted? Itis something that happens to most of us on a daily basis. Once again, you have to be able to separateout your time and tell these visitors that you will hang out with them after you get the other thingsdone that are part of your time management plan. Remember, most people will respect your wishesand leave you alone for the time being. If they won’t, perhaps you should recommend a good timemanagement plan to them because they are probably in need of one.The likelihood of visitors mayalso be directly linked to your inability to say no. If you have a classmate that wants you to go out todinner as soon as class gets out, you may say “sure.” They will then come over to your place, and hangout for a while before you go. The trip to dinner right after class now becomes going to dinner after acouple of hours of sitting around. If you had the ability to say no, “I prefer not to go anywhere until Iget my studying done,” you would be able to get your priorities out of the way, and probablysubconsciously convince the other person that they should be doing the same thing you are. Give it atry once and see if it works for you!ProcrastinationThis time stealer is a favorite of most people.As the old saying goes, “Why not put off today what you can do tomorrow?” Seems simple enough,right? The problem with that is once you start this type of cycle; people have the tendency to keepputting things off, until suddenly you are out of time. If you take the plunge initially and startstudying, you will soon find that it is easier to get it done now, so you don’t have to plan to do it later.This in turn gives you more free time in the long run because you are not playing a constant game of

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catch up.Unclear Objectives and PrioritiesThis time problem goes hand in hand withprocrastination. If you do not clearly know what it is that you have to do, then it is easier to put it off.Better yet, why even worry about it if this is something that won’t affect you until six weeks from now,right? Not at all. All it takes is one hour at the beginning of each new class to lay out your plans(objectives and priorities) for the next six weeks. Then if you dedicate ten minutes per week to lookingclosely at this plan to make sure you are on track, you are on the road to success. Stress and FatigueStress and fatigue are a direct result of poor time management. By overextending yourself indaily activities, you often find yourself run down, and possibly suffering from a lack of sleep. Often,lack of sleep is related to procrastination. If you put off doing something until later, you may findyourself staying up until odd hours studying for that test you have at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow. By having aset schedule, you know what you can and can’t do. More importantly you will begin to see the stressand the fatigue relieved. You no longer wonder how are you going to get everything done, spend timewith your friends, and still have time to sleep. You have a management plan and know what yourplans are for the day. The days of a stress filled life are gone and you are now spending more timedoing things you enjoy. StrategiesNow that you have identified your time stealers, you need to figureout how to manage these items. The first thing you need to do is define your objectives clearly. Bydoing this, you are setting goals for yourself. These are the things that you need to get done. These canbe labeled as short-term or long-term. Some may only last a few minutes where others may last a week or more. The good thing about objectives is that you can review them at any time to get yourself back on task. They are a daily reminder of the things that you need to accomplish.The next step is toanalyze your time. You need to sit down and closely examine how you use your time on a daily basisincluding how the time stealers fit into your schedule. Once you do this, you can ask yourself, “What isthe most important use of my time, right now?” This will help you focus in on the important tasks athand and encourage you to not react to tasks that are not urgent or disrupt your set schedule. Thefinal step to implementing a time management system into your life is setting up a plan. You need to sitdown and list everything out that you need to do. By doing this, you can see what your objectives areand give an allotment of time that it will take to complete these tasks. This will also help break yourday into parts allowing you to see if you are on task or if you are getting caught up in the cycle of timestealers. Keep in mind that in order for time management to work, you must put forth an effort tostick to the plan. Problems will occur that will cause you to deter from the plan for a short amount of time, but it is up to you to get yourself back on track. Once you have the plan in place, you will knowhow your day should go as well as being able to tell when you will have time for extracurricularactivities. It is no longer a time for you to stress over having enough time in the day. It is now aquestion of how are you going to spend the free time that you have been rewarded with by using a timemanagement plan.Sample Planning ScheduleIndicate time slots firmly committed to non-studyactivities, those things you have to attend to or your life will fall apart.Indicate time slots you willdevote to your studiesIndicate time slots occupied by non-study habits but which can be changed toprovide greater study time.-Is this a realistic planning schedule so far?-Is this a schedule you can livecomfortably with throughout the phase?-Are study periods adequate but of limited duration?-Do youhave times for breaks during studying scheduled in?-Do you have an ample number of blank spacesthat may be used for unexpected obligations?Are you willing to modify this planning guide withouttotally giving up your study schedule?Weekly SchedulePlan study time in blocks. Remember learningis what counts, not how much time it takes you to learn the material. Schedule as much time as YOUneed to be prepared for each class.Schedule a regular study time each day. If you do not stick to thisschedule, you are probably not committed to time management and need to review the basics.Plan atleast 45 minute to one hour blocks of study time, but no longer without a short break.Reward yourself if you used your study time effectively. Call a friend, or go out to dinner.Try to schedule periods of study time before and after classes. Take a few minutes to review notes, etc. It will help you bykeeping you up to date, requiring less time to study at a later time because you are already familiarwith the material.Work on your most difficult subject when you are alert. Save other chores, such as

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