Time it Out!

Hello Everyone!

Today we will be discussing time and the importance of recognizing the amount of time it takes to do something. Many people see time as the enemy to productivity, but it can actually be a very important proponent to maintaining an effective schedule.

Time is a Tool!

There are usually two common issues with time when you are trying to be productive. You either don’t have enough of it or you have too much. Today we will review some tips and tricks for utilizing the time that you do have to your best ability. The main goal for this blog is to convince you that by timing your tasks you actually increasing your efficiency. I am going to look at this strictly from a student perspective, but this can also be applied to work or whatever stage of life you might be in.

There have been so many times in my life when I say that I don’t have enough time! It is my favorite excuse for procrastinating. Personally, I know that I am very likely to postpone a task if I don’t think I have enough time to fully devote to it. On my least productive days I find myself becoming stressed out with the little blocks of time that I don’t know what to do with. I will sit for 15 minutes trying to determine what assignment can be done in the short time that I have available and by the time I figure it out I only have 15 more minutes left to do the assignment.

Use a Timer!

The most important thing to do in order to overcome this issue is to have a good understanding of how much time each of your tasks will take so that you can easily decide what task can be completed when.  This is a very slippery slope and there are ways to prohibit being less successful due to an increased uncertainty toward the time requirement.

In order to create a  balanced schedule is important to know how much time different tasks will take you to complete. By timing repetitive tasks you can defeat feelings of stress and make yourself more productive during the day. For example, let’s say that for my economics class I have to read a chapter of my book and take a quiz every single Wednesday. Because this task occurs every Wednesday I might use my phone and time how long it takes me to complete that assignment for the next few chapters and then average it out to find time in my schedule to complete it.

After I complete the timing of the task I can conclude that it usually takes me about 30 minutes to complete. That means that instead of taking the 30 minute break that I have between my accounting and management classes on Tuesday I can use that time to knock out my economics assignment. This video does an amazing job at explaining everything that we have covered up until this point.

Now that we have our tasks timed on Thursday we will work on making the most of any study time that is available in our base schedule!

See you next time!

Maria

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