Top Time Management tips for students

Top Time Management for students that will help you get more things done, stay organized and prepare well for competitive exams and for your future.

Introduction

You can’t make more hours in each day. Yet you can put more purpose and focus and meaning in each hour.

Blaming a lack of time is like blaming the sun for rising. There’s nothing you can do about it, so it’s not a factor to concern yourself with.

What you can do, is make the commitment to yourself to make each moment count for something meaningful and valuable. What you can do, is allow your authentic purpose to guide your focus, your actions and your use of the time that’s at hand.

Instead of worrying or being distracted about things that really don’t even matter, give your energy to what you truly care about. Instead of letting the time slip away, allow the best of your dreams to more fully unfold with each passing moment.

Remember constantly who you really are and why you have chosen to go in the direction you’re going. Every thought, word and action that comes from your true purpose will draw great value from the moment you’re in.

Whatever your age or situation, there’s plenty of time to live richly. And that time is here right now.

Benefits of time Management

What wealth can’t buy; something that can never be returned; something once lost is lost forever: is TIME.

And if you don’t manage it, all you can do is regret. Doesn’t matter if you’re a school/college student or a professional or a businessmen, one quality we all need to acquire is the art of managing time. Because time flies, but always, WE are the pilots.

People usually complaint about having less time to complete work, or ‘too much to do in too little time’, but the fact is that time is limited and utilising it effectively is the key to success.

Effective time management allows you to work more efficiently and accomplish more, as compared to a person who takes time for granted. It will help you in personal life, in school, college and in your professional work.

Students nowadays are into a lot of activities and the only way to do justice to them all is by incorporating effective time management techniques.

With so many things to do it can be easy to feel like you’re getting just too swamped. You may feel that there isn’t enough time, but by practicing a few effective time management habits you’ll be able to get yourself back on track and make more time for just relaxing.

Procrastinating work can never help you climb the ladder of success. Here are some tips that will help students manage their time.

How to teach time management to kids

Time management is essential for children as it is for adults and it it can be taught to kids as young as three.

Picking up after children can be tiresome for many. A child could dump their school bags and uniform all over the floor after returning from school and blame it on exhaustion. With countless classes and extra-curricular activities, if a child is taught to be independent and manage schedules in a disciplined manner, it would also benefit his/her parents.

A playful approach through various games always work in teaching kids the importance of time.

Play their favourite song

Pardiwalla says that asking them to clean their room can be turned into a fun activity if you play their favourite song while they are at it. “You can ask them to finish up within the duration of the song,” she says. This activity can be enhanced by colour coding the four corners of a room. The green corner could be assigned for study material, the blue, reserved for toys and games, while the yellow could accommodate the clothes that need to be put away. Boxes of the assigned colour could be left at the designated corner to be filled up by the child.

Make a colourful calendar

A calendar could be arranged weekly, monthly and annually which is easily accessible to everyone in the family. Even this can be made interesting by the use of colours.

The most important activities such as study and homework can be marked in red, while playtime can be marked with the child’s favourite colour. Separate colours should be used for TV viewing, day dreaming, family time, talking time, meeting friends and other activities. A small whiteboard with a duster can list either the entire day’s or week’s schedule. Divided in parts, this list can also grace the refrigerator door.

The activity can be further enhanced by putting up stickers marked as ‘most important’, ‘urgent’, ‘not so urgent’, ‘requires immediate attention’. These can be arranged and rearranged according to the child’s preference.

Team building with a house of cards

One of the activities Pardiwalla will be teaching the kids at the workshop is to divide the kids into teams and ask them to arrange playing cards in a set pattern together. “They will be given three turns to arrange the cards. It could have aces, kings, queens, numbers arranged by colour or by any other pattern. You can ask them to solve it after shuffling the cards. They would have to arrange it in one minute. The first minute will be chaotic, the second will be a little better than the first and the third would be smooth. You can teach a great deal about patience through this exercise. You can tell them that it’s okay to not get it right the first time but by understanding each other and working together, they can achieve better results with practice over time,” she says.

The pebble experiment

Many have read about the popular concept of using rocks, golf balls and marbles to denote priorities in life on the internet. This concept lends itself to a model which can be used to explain the importance of prioritizing one’s life to children. “It’s important to teach kids how to prioritize activities in their life. I would first put the big pebbles in a transparent jar and ask kids if they think it is full. If they say yes, I’ll add smaller pebbles to the jar and ask them the same question.

I’ll repeat the process with sand and water simultaneously until the jar is actually full. I’ll tell them that their day, week and month can be prioritized like this. I would then show them that if I did less important or urgent activities first, there would be no time to perform the more important ones. I would denote this by filling the jar with sand and water first, thus leaving no space for big pebbles,” she says.

The bathroom board

A white board with a marker and duster can be be installed in a dry area of the bathroom for the child to note down the of time they took to shower, brush their teeth or wear their clothes. Once the time they took to get ready for school is recorded, they could be then rewarded for time saved on improving on their best time.

Rewards

Kids can be taught patience and time-management in an enjoyable way by including a reward mechanism. If they complete their tasks on time, inform them about the time they have saved and how it has helped everyone get more family time. Tell them that you’re proud of them for achieving this feat. They can be treated with a movie or extra play time over the weekend. Children love to be praised, especially if it comes from their peer group or favourite teachers. As parents, you could write down the child’s time management skills and present the paper to their class teacher. If the school allows, it could also be announced during assembly to encourage other kids. Positive reinforcement will always have a lasting effect.

Source: mumbaimirror

Top Time Management Tips for Students

• Set goals for yourself (but they need to be realistic and achievable)
• Create a to do list for yourself. Make a schedule noting down all tasks you need to accomplish in a certain time, and work towards attaining them.
• Prioritize what you need to accomplish during the day. Focus on the more important tasks first.
• Eliminate or limit your distractions so that you can focus on your top priorities. learn to say “no“ to other tasks. Therefore, limit your TV hours and mobile phone usage.
• Wake up a little earlier; you will get an hour more. Besides, Since your mind is the freshest in mornings, wake up early to complete your tasks.
• Get a routine in place, routine tasks become easier and quicker when done regularly.

  You also need some discipline in order to Stick to the Tasks . Discipline makes it easier for everyone to get into the habit of completing certain tasks in set amounts of time. If there’s certain chores you or your kids keep putting off, a routine that you follow closely will create good habits of just doing them rather than thinking about them.

• Delegate where you can, it will help you focus on the more important tasks.
• Develop the habit of taking notes. Keep a Note Book and Pen Handy
• Take help of supportive systems/tools (files, folders, etc). Always keep a planner (either weekly or monthly) in hand, and assign dates for particular activities.
• While focusing on work is important, its also important to have some ‘me’ time where you spare some time for yourself. Get adequate sleep during exams or when facing stiff deadline on projects.

  Take Time to Relax: While it’s important to stick to a schedule and use your time wisely, be sure you also schedule in some time for everyone to just relax. So if your family is always short on time, try to avoid making too many social plans in advance for the weekends. You shouldn’t feel committed to go; instead take some time ff for fun and relaxation.

Time Management Tools / Software

Use a Planner
Start using a planner right away, and if you are a parent use one for the entire family so that everyone has access to it and everybody is aware of each other’s schedule.

Organizing chores could very well be easier and more efficient when unexpected situations aren’t sprung on you at the eleventh hour. With a shared calendar, your children will also be aware of your schedule and will be less likely to try to plan things that would conflict with other important appointments.

Besides, this tool enables you to monitor where you should be and what you should be doing throughout the day, it also allows your family be aware of the significance of managing their time and sticking to a schedule. You may also want to encourage everyone, including yourself, to keep their own personal planner where smaller things like studying, sports, or leisure activities can be taken into account as well.

Here are some more things that can help you save time.

• Get an alarm clock so that you can get up on time.
• Get Daily, weekly, and monthly planners to better plan your time. Plan weeks ahead.
• You can Install a time management software/app on your phone (free versions are available)
• Buy time management software (available for the workplace)
• Attend workshops to get more time saving ideas. Attend workshops / training on time management to learn more tips and techniques on how to extract more time out of your busy schedule.

Also Read: Time Management Tools & Apps.

Time Management Training Programs / Workshops

Attend workshops/training programs
The Seven Habit of Highly Effective People, (book by Stephen Covey)

Want to share any more time management techniques or tools? Please let us know in the comments below.

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