The start of a new academic year is a great time to consider how you will use your time effectively.  Assuming you have already decided what you want to do with your time – your goals and priorities, what you aspire to accomplish – your next steps should involve scheduling.   We’re talking about more than just a class schedule, of course.   Your class schedule is already done.  We are talking about scheduling life.  The more free-spirited among us may recoil from the concept, but scheduling is essential for your aspirations to become reality, even if you aspire to more free time!
There are several keys to effective scheduling: 

• Understand how much time things really take
• Plan to make the best use of the time available
• Leave enough time for things you absolutely must do
• Preserve contingency time to handle “the unexpected”
• Minimize stress by avoiding over-committing for the time that is available to you

Thinking these things through thoroughly and regularly – at the start of each week, for example – creates habits of mind and a schedule that contribute to personal success, however you define it.

Before you can schedule efficiently, you need an effective method to keep track of your schedule – a scheduling system. This can be a diary, calendar, paper-based planner/organizer, or a software system in a PDA or computer such as MS Outlook. Scheduling is then a five-step process:

1. Identify the times during each day that you have available for all your obligations and personal/professional goals and priorities (i.e. the time you have beyond the “home base” time you spend with family, sleeping, etc.).
2. Write in the essential tasks you must carry out, such as attending class, work hours, homework, and appointments.
3. Mark down times for vital, regular “housekeeping” activities, such as grocery shopping, paying bills.
4. Consider the unexpected interruptions that happened in past weeks and any special considerations for the coming week, and extend the times for the essential tasks and “housekeeping” tasks to include appropriate contingency time for handling unpredictable interruptions without blowing the schedule.
5. In the time that remains, schedule the tasks and activities that address additional priorities and personal goals beyond the classes and work and essential activities you have already scheduled.

When you have reached step five, if you have carefully and realistically considered the time you need in steps two through four, you should have an excellent idea of the time available to you to devote to additional priorities and you can schedule them and let everyone else involved know the commitment that you can make.  Regular scheduling also provides an excellent opportunity to keep track of and review your obligations and your personal goals and aspirations and your progress toward achieving them.   You can use the review to evaluate your goals and how well you are using the time available to you:  have you set goals that are achievable with the time you have available? are you taking on too many additional duties? are there things that you are treating as more important than they really are?

Source:  The Mind Tools Community Time Management Resources.  www.mindtools.com

[Monika Byrd, August 2008]

Questions or Comments about Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Briefs may be directed to Monika Byrd, Dean of Leadership Development for the Honors Program Department.