Time Management for Students

Time management for students is something which is rarely, if ever, taught in school by teachers.

Yet is one of the most beneficial tools that students can develop during their study years, and which will continue to be an excellent and worthwhile life skill for the future. Students are required, and expected, to be capable of balancing all of the various demands on their time. This includes studying, researching, writing, sporting activities and of course socializing, and yet all too often students procrastinate those activities which they feel unsure of. This is because of their inability to effectively manage their time. Their efficiency is poor, and as a result, their self-belief is eroded, meaning that many students feel unhappy, lacking in confidence about their abilities. The sad thing is, they then go on to produce sub standard work far below what they could achieve.

Whats students need is to be able to strike a delicate balance between the various demands, without sacrificing those aspects of their lives which are not purely academic. Time management for students is about being able to provide an ability to manage all the conflicts on their time. Of course, any method still has to be realistic.

It is true that only a hard honest and realistic approach to managing the students time will be successful. Do you know what is commonly cited as the reason for students giving up on a drawn up plan? Once the plan is drawn up, students then believe that that is the ened of the process, and that all issues will magially dissapear. It is important to note that simply drawing up a plan soes not mean that anything will get done. It is a process which must be on-going, frequently monitored and adhered to honestly if it is to achieve the positive outcomes necessary.

Another issue where time management for students can become an issue is where the plans, graphic organizers and other systems become a task in themselves. They can easily start to form a distraction. This only adds to the already problematic procrastination for which students are so renowned.

Teachers can help their students to understand the management of their time by developing and maintaining a class calendar. This draws attention to the amount of time available, and showing how larger tasks can be broken into smaller, more easily manageable ones. Many students find that it can help greatly to have three levels of organization – short, medium and long term. Goal setting is important for long term understanding of “what it’s all for”. This aids focus and general direction, whereas the short term planning needs to be much more immediate and detailed.

Any system of time management for students must be easy to develop and maintain, easy to understand and realistically achievable. The main key must be in eliminating the tendency to procrastinate, which is the student’s worst enemy. Ultimately, schools would benefit from introducing time management as a taught discipline. This will exponentially improve the lives of the students, as well as producing better results for the academic institution.

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