As most students discover, time in college is not the same as it was in high school. There are many more “unscripted” hours of the day. Fewer hours are devoted to sitting in a classroom, but more hours are expected to be devoted to classwork, on your own. While this can be liberating, you may find that social opportunities conflict with academic expectations. For example, a free day before an exam, if not wisely spent, can spell trouble for doing well on the exam. It is easy to fall behind when there are so many choices and opportunities.
In the following Alleyoop Advice video, Alleyoop (Angel Aquino) discusses what many students discover about college: there is a lot of free time—and many challenges to effectively balance free time with study time.
Click here to download a transcript for this video
In the next few sections, we’ll take three steps towards learning to effectively manage our time. First, we have to see where we are, currently, with our use of time.
Step 1: Identify Your Time Management Style
The following self-assessment survey can help you determine your time-management personality type. Read each question in the Questions column. Then read the possible responses. Select one response for each question. Each response should reflect what you probably would do in a given situation, not what you think is the “right” answer. Put a checkmark in the My Time Management Type column next to your likely response.
| QUESTIONS | RESPONSES: Which response most closely matches what you would do? In the right column, check one response (a, b, c or d) for each question. | MY TIME MANAGEMENT TYPE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Your instructor just gave your class the prompts for your first essay, which is due in two weeks. How do you proceed from here? | a. Choose a prompt and begin working on a thesis immediately. Better to get it out of the way! | Ο Early bird |
| b. Read over the prompts and let them sink in for a week or so. You’ll still have one more week to finish the assignment, right? | Ο Balancing act | ||
| c. Read the prompts and maybe start playing around with ideas, but wait to really start writing until the day before. You swear it’s all in your head somewhere! | Ο Pressure cooker | ||
| d. Definitely last. You’ll wait until everyone else has done their work, so you can make sure you are not duplicating efforts. Whatever, this is why you hate group work. | Ο Improviser | ||
| 2 | You are working on a group assignment that requires you to split up responsibilities with three other classmates. When would you typically finish your part? | a. First. Then you’re done and don’t have to worry about it. Plus it could give you time in case you want to tweak anything later. | Ο Early bird |
| b. After one or two of the others have submitted their materials to the group, but definitely not last. You wanted to see how they approached it first. | Ο Balancing act | ||
| c. Maybe last, but definitely before the assignment due date and hopefully before any of the other group members ask about it. | Ο Pressure cooker | ||
| d. Definitely last. You’ll wait until everyone else has done their work, so you can make sure you are not duplicating efforts. Whatever, this is why you hate group work. | Ο Improviser | ||
| 3 | Your instructor just shared the instructions for your next assignment and you read them but don’t quite understand what he’s asking for in a certain part. What would you probably do? | a. Send the instructor an email that afternoon. When he doesn’t respond that night, email him again. This is your worst nightmare—you just want to know what he wants!! | Ο Early bird |
| b. Send him an email asking for clarification, giving yourself enough time to wait for his response and then complete the assignment. Better to be safe than sorry. | Ο Balancing act | ||
| c. Try to figure it out for yourself. You’re pretty sure what he’s trying to say, and you’ll give it your best shot. | Ο Pressure cooker | ||
| d. Don’t say anything until after the assignment is due. Other people in the class felt the same way too, probably! | Ο Improviser | ||
| 4 | The course you are taking requires you to post in a weekly discussion forum by Sunday night each week so the class can talk about everyone’s posts on Monday. When do you submit your posts? | a. Tuesday night, after the first day of class that week. Then it’s out of the way. | Ο Early bird |
| b. Thursday or Friday night. You want to let the week’s discussion sink in a little so you can collect your thoughts. | Ο Balancing act | ||
| c. Sunday night. You always forget during the weekend! | Ο Pressure cooker | ||
| d. Monday at 3 AM. That still counts as Sunday night, right? | Ο Improviser | ||
| 5 | You have an important assignment due Monday morning, and you have a social/work/family obligation that will keep you busy for most of the weekend. It is now the Wednesday before the assignment is due. How would you approach this dilemma? | a. You already finished it yesterday, the day it was assigned. Done! | Ο Early bird |
| b. You tell yourself that you’ll finish it by Friday night, and you manage this by chipping away at it over those 3 days. …Little. By. Little. | Ο Balancing act | ||
| c. You tell yourself that you’ll finish it by Friday night, so you can have your weekend free, but you still have a little left to do on Sunday—no big deal. | Ο Pressure cooker | ||
| d. You tell yourself that you’ll take the weekend off, then stay up late on Sunday or wake up early on Monday to finish it. It’s not a final or anything, and you have a life. | Ο Improviser | ||
| 6 | You have to read 150 pages before your next class meeting. You have 4 days to do so. What would you most likely do? | a. 150 pages divided by 4 days means… a little less than 40 pages a day. You like to chunk it this way because then you’ll also have time to go over your notes and highlights, and come up with questions for the instructor. | Ο Early bird |
| b. 150 pages divided by…well … 2 days (because it’s been a long week), means 75 pages a day. Totally doable. | Ο Balancing act | ||
| c. 150 pages, the day before it is due. You did this to yourself, it’s fine. | Ο Pressure cooker | ||
| d. How much time does it take to skim the text for keywords and/or find a summary online? | Ο Improviser |
Assessing Your Responses
Which of the four basic time-management personality types did you select the most? Which did you select the least? Do you feel like these selections match the student you have been in the past? Has your previous way of doing things worked for you, or do you think it’s time for a change? Remember, we can all always improve!
Learn more below about your tendencies. Review traits, strengths, challenges, and tips for success for each of the four time-management personality types.
The Early Bird
- Traits: You like to make checklists and feel great satisfaction when you can cross something off of your to-do list. When it comes to assignments, you want to get started as soon as possible (and maybe start brainstorming before that), because it lets you stay in control.
- Strengths: You know what you want and are driven to figure out how to achieve it. Motivation is never really a problem for you.
- Challenges: Sometimes you can get more caught up in getting things done as quickly as possible and don’t give yourself enough time to really mull over issues in all of their complexity.
- Tips for Success: You’re extremely organized and on top of your schoolwork, so make sure you take time to really enjoy learning in your classes. Remember, school isn’t all deadlines and checkboxes—you also have the opportunity to think about big-picture intellectual problems that don’t necessarily have clear answers.
The Balancing Act
- Traits: You really know what you’re capable of and are ready to do what it takes to get the most out of your classes. Maybe you’re naturally gifted in this way or maybe it’s a skill that you have developed over time; in any case, you should have the basic organizational skills to succeed in any class, as long as you keep your balance.
- Strengths: Your strength really lies in your ability to be well rounded. You may not always complete assignments perfectly every time, but you are remarkably consistent and usually manage to do very well in classes.
- Challenges: Because you’re so consistent, sometimes you can get in a bit of a rut and begin to coast in class, rather than really challenging yourself.
- Tips for Success: Instead of simply doing what works, use each class as an opportunity for growth by engaging thoughtfully with the material and constantly pushing the boundaries of your own expectations for yourself.
The Pressure Cooker
- Traits: You always get things done and almost always at the last minute. Hey, it takes time to really come up with good ideas!
- Strengths: You work well under pressure, and when you do finally sit down to accomplish a task, you can sit and work for hours. In these times, you can be extremely focused and shut out the rest of the world in order to complete what’s needed.
- Challenges: You sometimes use your ability to work under pressure as an excuse to procrastinate. Sure, you can really focus when the deadline is tomorrow, but is it really the best work you could produce if you had a couple of days of cushion?
- Tips for Success: Give yourself small, achievable deadlines, and stick to them. Make sure they’re goals that you really could (and would) achieve in a day. Then don’t allow yourself to make excuses. You’ll find that it’s actually a lot more enjoyable to not be stressed out when completing schoolwork. Who would have known?
The Improviser
- Traits: You frequently wait until the last minute to do assignments, but it’s because you’ve been able to get away with this habit in many classes. Sometimes you miss an assignment or two, or have to pretend to have done reading that you haven’t, but everyone does that sometimes, right?
- Strengths: You think quickly on your feet, and while this is a true strength, it also can be a crutch that prevents you from being really successful in a class.
- Challenges: As the saying goes, old habits die hard. If you find that you lack a foundation of discipline and personal accountability, it can be difficult to change, especially when the course material becomes challenging or you find yourself struggling to keep up with the pace of the class.
- Tips for Success: The good news is you can turn this around! Make a plan to organize your time and materials in a reasonable way, and really stick with it. Also, don’t be afraid to ask your instructor for help, but be sure to do it before, rather than after, you fall behind.
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