Announcement: Tips for Prioritizing Time and Tasks

No Author
2016-07-26T23:36:05-06:00

Now that the semester is under way and the workload has increased, it may be time to have a conversation about prioritizing time and tasks. Here are some tips to get you started.

Know the requirements. In a bachelor’s degree program the expectation is at least 9 hours per week. Three hours in the classroom and 2 hours outside the classroom for each credit (3 credits= 6 hours of course work outside of class).

Identify your resources. Know what is needed to accomplish a task and know what is available to you (time, creativity, research, support from others, etc). This allows you to make a plan to best utilize your resources and/or develop the ones you need.

Use the syllabus. Each assignment is given a weight by the professor. Those weights should be used to identify how much time and effort is necessary for each assignment. In a perfect world, all students would give 100% on all assignments all the time. The reality is, there are often competing demands (other classes, work, family, etc.). If a student has papers coming up in each of his 4 classes the paper that counts for the largest portion of his grade should be given more time and attention.

Understand the differences between URGENT and IMPORTANT (also called the Eisenhower Principle). Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has a great time management tool that places items in quadrants (Urgent, Not Urgent and Important, Not Important). On a regular basis (beginning of each week, every morning, etc) assess your To-do List. Figure out what matters and what has pressing time constraints. If it matters, make time for it and classify it accordingly in the matrix below. Urgent and Important items will be higher on your priority list and hopefully you will start avoiding many of the distractions that come up in quadrant 4 (Not Important/Not Urgent). Here’s additional information and blank copies of the grid.

(Image from http://blog.idonethis.com/do-what-is-important/)