TIME MANAGEMENT FOR LEADERS

"Procrastination is the thief of time."

Edward Young 

How are some people able to work so many different activities into their schedules while others barely seem to have the time to attend classes?  Are they smarter?  Doubtful.  More organized?  You're getting warm.  Better at managing their time?  BINGO!!

TIME MANAGEMENT is important to any student, but particularly so to those involved in student organizations.  Involvement in an extracurricular group means that in addition to classes, meals, jobs, and socializing, another significant chunk of your time is automatically taken when it comes to scheduling your day.  This handout will give some pointers on how to more efficiently manage one of your most precious resources:  TIME. 

Note:  Managing your time is a highly personalized skill - only you know your peak work hours, your attention span, your eating and sleeping needs.  This handout will present general ideas necessary for successful time management and give specific examples of how these ideas might be applied.  The important things are the IDEAS, not the applications.  Whatever method works for you, is the "right" one.

THE BIG THREE..

The three steps to efficient time management are:

        1.     Organizing

        2.     Prioritizing

        3.     Scheduling

The main idea is to be flexible in your planning.  Disasters will come up, and, after all, we are only human.  Allow for the unexpected.  The only sure thing in a schedule is that the unexpected will always happen.

ORGANIZING:

Ideally, you should make a list each morning of everything that you want or need to do for that day.  At this stage, don't plan out every minute.  Don't even think about which jobs are most important - just write down everything you can think of.  Another method is to list tasks or "things to do" every 5-7 days.  This helps to plan longer projects (i.e., more than one day) better.  There may be days when you forget or just don't feel like doing some things.  Giving yourself more than one day at a time gives you more flexibility.

PRIORITIES

 The next step is to rewrite your list in order of priority, with the intention of doing the higher priority tasks first, and working your way down the list.  Much of this will be done for you if you keep in mind the due dates for the different projects you're working on.  If the project is for a class, consider things such as how much of the final grade that particular project is worth (5% or 50%).  How you prioritize is up to you.  No one can tell you what is most important to you.  Be responsible with your priorities.

SCHEDULING

Now that you've got a prioritized list of everything that you need and want to do, you should look at your set class/work schedule to fit your projects around what you already have scheduled and cannot change.  You may want to do this for a few days at a time, rather than every day.  Remember to let your schedule be flexible.  Don't get overly ambitious - there's no need to plan out every minute of your day.  Make a reasonable schedule that you can be sure to stick to.  Leave room for breaks, socializing, and those little things that tend to pop up.  A good habit to develop is to use a calendar to mark your set schedule, projects, appointments, etc.

Following these three steps will help you use your time more effectively, and a little more time is something we could all use!

Source:  Student Organization Development Center              

 University of Michigan