3. Time- You Have All There Is We all have the same amount of time each week and we decide how to spend most of it Even if you are rich, you can’t buy more time than the allocated 10,080 minutes that each of us is given every week Time management is self management
4. Procrastination The truth is simple: we all tend to avoid the hard jobs in favor of the easy ones Procrastination: a bad habit formed after many years of practice Reasons for procrastination: 1) trying to be perfect, 2) fear of not knowing how to do the task, 3) fear of failing or fear of the task being too hard, 4) no real plan or goal for getting the task done The biggest problem with procrastination, even beyond not getting the job, task or paper completed, is doing it poorly
5. Procrastination (cont’d) By putting the project off, you have cheated yourself out of the time needed to bring your best to the table and, most likely you are going to hand over a project, with your name on it, that is not even close to your golden potential And to top it off, more stress is created by the vicious cycle of “I’ll do it tomorrow- or this weekend”
6. Day People vs. Night People Knowing your prime “body time” is important to your concentration and motivation Other factors that can affect procrastination are: complexity of the material you are studying, interest level in the material you are studying, noise or interference by others, hunger or thirst, sleep deprivation, your social environment, your student environment (too hot, too cold, too close to distractions, etc.), ambiguity (not really knowing what needs to be done), lack of information needed to complete the task
7. Planning and Preparing Successful time management comes from planning the night before Create a list of tasks to be done tomorrow, separate the items into three categories (Must Do, Need to Do, Fun Stuff), rank each item from 1-3, is the most important, 2 is the next important, and 3 is next in line
8. Planning and Organizing for Work Organize your materials at work as they are organized at home Write directions down Never let your work responsibilities slide because you are studying on the job Leave the office for lunch, breaks, and short walks When you are given projects that require working with others, plan carefully to do your work well and on time Keep a Rolodex file or use a Palm Pilot or your iPod for important phone numbers and addresses that you use frequently
9. Planning and Organizing For Work Perform difficult, unpleasant tasks as soon as you can so you don’t have them hanging over your head If you are a non-traditional student and have children, teach them to be organized so they don’t waste your time searching for their shoes, books and assignments Teach family members responsibility Give each of your children a drawer in a filing cabinet; show them how to organize their work Tell your family and friends when you have to study; ask them to respect you by not calling or dropping by at this time Post a family calendar where everyone can see it
10. The Relationship Between Poor Time Management & Monumental Stress Most stress does not just happen to us We allow it to happen by not planning our day or week We allow our “to do” list to get out of hand, and before we know it, there is more on the list that can be done in a month Because of poor planning and procrastination, we become anxious and nervous about not getting it all done By planning and doing, we actually lower our stress level and improve our general health and memory
11. Stress (cont’d) Medical research has shown that exposure to stress over a long period of time can be damaging to your body When you are stressed, your brain releases cortisol, which affects the neurons in your brain Over time, cortisol can be toxic and damage parts of the hippocampus- the part of the brain that deals with memory and learning Learning to control stress through managing your time more effectively can be key to better memory There is stress and eustress
12. Three Types of Stressors in Your Life Situational Stressors: caused by a change in physical or social environment; reduce it by changing your residence or environment to suit your needs; find a quiet place to relax and study; arrange your classes to suit your individual needs Psychological Stressors: caused by unrealistic expectations; homesickness; fear; reduce it by surrounding yourself with positive people, surround yourself with people who support you; talk to professors, counselors, family and friends Biological Stressors: caused by hormonal changes, weight gain/loss, change in physical activities; reduce by developing health eating plan, developing an exercise plan, increasing daily activity
14. Read Just because you can read words does not mean that you comprehend what the author intended The two greatest problems students face today are college math classes and reading comprehension 6 tools you need: an open mind, pencils or pens, the material you’re reading, a highlighter, paper or tablet, dictionary Reading speed varies from person to person
15. Read (cont’d) The best way to develop a dynamic vocabulary is by reading Your dictionary will become a good friend to you in college Speed and comprehension both require deep, mindful concentration Neither can be achieved without it Your body needs to be ready to concentrate; you need sleep, rest and proper nutrition Building a strong vocabulary is not easy and it does not happen overnight However, it is very important that you work on this aspect of reading as often as possible; if you don’t know a word, stop and look it up
16. Read (cont’d) Fixation: when your eyes stop on a single word to read it The average reader can see approximately 2.5 words per fixation To reduce your fixation time for active reading, consider the following: practice seeing two or more words with one fixation, as you practice, try to read in phrases In order to build your speed and work on concentration, you will need to read as much as possible The more you read, the more you improve your skills Find the topic statement, or main idea, in each paragraph
17. How to Read Your Chapter Read the entire paragraph before you mark anything Identify the topic or thesis statement of each paragraph and highlight it Highlight key phrases Don’t highlight too much; the text will lose its significance Stop and look up words that you do not know or understand While reading, always keep a dictionary in hand
18. How to Read Your Chapter (cont’d) When you look up a word, circle it and write the definition in the margin If you are reading material that is completely new to you- difficult to understand yet important to remember- you may have to disregard paragraphs and paraphrase sections of a paragraph; this can be done with simple “tick marks” in your reading When you get to a point where you have “read enough”, put a tick mark at the point; continue reading until you get to the end of the paragraph, putting tick marks in the place where you feel you have read a complete thought
19. How to Read Your Chapter (cont’d) When you get to the end of the paragraph, re-read the first section that you marked off; out to the side, paraphrase that section Recitation is important; once you have read a section using one or more of the techniques from above, ask yourself this simple question: “What was that all about?” Using the SQ3R for reading: 1) reading the title of the chapter, the headings, and each subheading, 2) Ask “Who? When? What? Where? Why?”, as you scan and read your chapter, turn the information into questions and see if you can answer them, and 3) Read- read the chapter
