Student Success Workshop

Week 4

Time Management
Checking in (5min)
• What is one thing that brought you joy this past week/ weekend?
• Is there anything you are struggling with or finding difficult lately?
• How are you feeling today?
Today’s agenda
• Check-in
• Reading review in small groups
• Activity: Share and analyze our own timetable diaries
• Mini lecture: other tips for time management
• Mini writing workshop (topic: costs of multi-tasking)
Reading review in small groups (10min)
• Open your written response to the article you read for homework
(“Time Management is About More Than Life Hacks” by Erich
Dierdorff) and revisit your ideas.
• Have each person in your group share one key idea, tip, or strategy
that Dierdorff mentioned, and explain why it stood out to you.
Building self-awareness
about time management
Analyzing our timetable diaries in
pairs (20min)
1) Open your timetable diary.
2) Take note of how you used your time. What percent was devoted to
class/ study time outside of class? Extracurriculars? Part-time work?
Rest/ sleep? Are there any changes you want to make?
3) Identify your time-wasters, if any. Are you spending too much time
checking social media? Do you tend to text or multi-task while
studying?
4) When do you think you work best on tasks that require creativity or
deep thinking? When do you tend to have the most energy,
inspiration, and drive? Do you think you often use that time wisely?
5) Share your reflections with your partner.
Key takeaway/ tip: Pay attention to your
body
• Figuring out how your body/mind work at different times of
the day can help you allocate your time more efficiently.
• For example, during your “best” work time, you can prioritize
your most challenging academic tasks. At other times, you
can prioritize socializing, resting (guilt-free!), exercise, or
schedule a work shift.
• Remember that rest and recuperation is necessary!
 Other tips for
time management
in college
20min
Work in short, focused spurts & with
breaks!
• You can make use of time in
between class, work, or other
activities to complete tasks.
• The Pomodoro Technique: Set a
timer and work for 25 minutes
without any distractions. Then,
take a 5-minute break.
• You can repeat as many
“pomodoros” as you want.
Consider giving yourself a longer
break after you complete four or
more!
Make bigger tasks less overwhelming by
breaking them down into smaller tasks
• Break down larger tasks into smaller, bite-sized steps.
• For example, how might you break down the task of
studying for a big mid-term exam? How about writing a
10-page research paper?

• This can also help you feel ready to make use of short
segments of free time (e.g. for pomodoros!)
Migrate to-do lists onto a calendar
• It’s usually not enough to just have a list of tasks. That can still feel
overwhelming!
• Write down major deadlines, along with your own smaller deadlines
and goals in your calendar.

• What method do you use to keep track of/ visualize your assignments,
plans, and other responsibilities?
• Paper planner
• Digital calendar– Google calendar, Outlook calendar, other tools
• Share your strategies!
Allocate time based on priorities
• Don’t treat all tasks/ assignments equally in terms of time and
attention. Prioritize the most important tasks on a daily and
weekly basis.
• One strategy for doing this: timeboxing.
• Decide how long you will give a particular task and create a “timebox”
for it on your calendar. You might allocate 2 hours for a challenging and
important homework assignment, but just 1 for a less important one.
• Do your best to complete the task within the timebox. This may mean
sacrificing quality when appropriate (let go of perfectionism!)
• Block out all distractions during the timeboxed period and do not
multitask.
The Sunday meeting
Setting aside time to create your weekly plan

• Try setting aside 20-30min on Sundays for a meeting with yourself or

with friends.
• Goal: to visualize the week ahead. Make sure you can map out the
key tasks, priorities, deadlines, activities, goals.
• If you have a big deadline later in the week, create smaller tasks (and
assign them to a timebox!) in order to make sure you stay on track.
• Also ask: have you made sure to block off time for rest and play?
 Writing practice
Topic: the costs of multi-tasking
[30min]
Reading and citing an academic journal
article Part 1 (10min) [READING]
1) Go to our course Moodle page and click on the article link listed
under this week’s class. The article is titled “Make it our time: In class
multitaskers have lower academic performance.”
2) Read silently for 10 minutes. First, closely read the abstract*. Then,
continue into the introduction for the remaining time.

*What is an abstract?  Next slide

Volume (53) and page
numbers (63-70)

Name of the academic

journal

Authors
Their affiliations

The abstract: Summary

of the article. Tells you
why the research was
done, how it was done
(methodology), what the
authors found, and why
it’s important.
Reading and citing an academic journal
article Part 2 (10min) [WRITING]
1) With group of 3 or 4, write one sentence about this study and what it
found. Start with: “Bellur, Nowak, and Hull (2015) found that…”
2) Add two more sentences providing more detail. At the end
of those sentences, include an in-text citation: (Bellur, Nowak, & Hull,
2015)
3) Finally, write out the full reference for the article in APA format.

Post your group's response to the Moodle forum! Include your team
name in the subject line.
Reading and citing an academic journal
article Part 3 (10min) [PEER REVIEW]
Take turns sharing your sentences with another small group. Read
aloud what you wrote, but also show them the in-text citations(s) and
full reference.

Provide feedback to the other group. Do you spot any mistakes with
citation formatting? Have they captured the main findings of the study
in their sentences?
After verbally sharing your feedback, type it into the Moodle forum as a
comment under their Moodle post.
APA reference format for journal articles

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/journal-article-references
TA Time (5min)
• What is one time management skill or strategy that you think
would be useful for you to practice?
 • Read chapter titled “What is ‘academic’
writing?” by Lennie Irvin. Fill out notes on the
provided worksheet and submit on Moodle.
Homework
for next • Brainstorm ideas for your research paper. See
the assignment guide for more detail on the
week prompt.
• Write and submit at least 100 words describing
your idea(s)
• You do not have to write the actual paper yet!!