NAITSA offered a Student Leadership Summit September 1, 2021 where some of the Nugget contributors learned about time management from NAIT Student Services. Here are some of the tips of time management that they provided.
Start budgeting time by planning the essentials like eating, sleeping, and exercising. Budget time for responsibilities such as work, school, cleaning or volunteering and make time for friends, family or significant others.
Steps to planning out a schedule:
Step one: Start with the fixed commitments, the non-negotiables, like work and school.
Step two: Move on to study/homework time. How much time is needed to study and how much work is there to do?
Step three: This is the most important step. The fun stuff! Manage time with friends, family, going to events, or even just self-care. Many wouldn’t think this is the most important part of budgeting time but, without time for this people can end up feeling overwhelmed or burnt out.
Some practical tips for how to avoid being overwhelmed:
Try outsourcing some responsibilities. That could be paying someone to clean the house, getting groceries delivered or even ordering food once in a while. To save time in the day, try multi-tasking like watching TV and folding laundry or going out to eat with friends. Figure out what works best for each individual when it comes to budgeting time, whether that be scheduling down to the minute or scheduling in chunks of time. And lastly make sure to effectively use the time allotted for each task and try to avoid distractions such as friends or technology.
Tools to help budget time are different for every person, so try different methods and see what works. But don’t give up on new methods too quickly because it takes about three weeks to make a habit.
Some tools to try are:
- Planners: digital or physical
- White boards
- To-do lists
- Timers
- Sticky notes
Accountability is important with time management. Many people struggle with self-accountability, but a good alternative solution would be friends/family or digital reminders/alarms to provide accountability. But the most important tool is knowing when to make cuts or changes in the schedule to avoid being overwhelmed.
NAIT Student services is always open to help students figure out how to manage time for the most success. Find more useful tools or book an appointment on learningservices.nait.ca
