Time Management Skills, Essay Example

High school is not easy as far as managing time is concerned, and I think that this is something all high school students struggle with.  Juggling school, sleep, homework, extracurricular activities and leisure time is something that is an ongoing challenge, since there are so many demands on our time and, sometimes it seem like there just are not enough hours in the day to get everything done that we need and want to do. That is where this time management project comes in, giving us a chance to right down and account for every single minute of our day so that we can see just how those minutes are spent. The following is an analysis of this time management project. It covers how I thought I was managing my time before this assignment, as well as some of the things I discovered about my management habits and how this has changed the way I will manage my time in the future.

Personal Perception of Time Management Skills

Before doing this assignment, if someone had asked me about how I spend my day, I would have told them that I go to school in the morning during the week, spend some time after school each day on band practice, go home, watch TV or text my friends for a while, do my homework, and then go to bed.  Usually I go out with friends on the weekends, sometimes do a little volunteer work at a Boys and Girls Club in my neighborhood, and go to church on Sunday with my family.  I felt like my schedule was pretty well divided between classes, hang out time, and family time.

Change of Perception after Time Management Activity

After doing this activity and keeping careful track of how my time was spent, I came to the realization that my perception of how I spend my time did not quite match the reality of how I spent it.  For one thing, I have not been getting as much sleep as I thought I was: I usually stay up until midnight or later, and before this study I did not pay too much attention to when I got to bed: I would usually just turn out the light and when I feel sleepy.  Whatever time I get to bed, I always get up around six-thirty and leave the house by seven-thirty on the weekdays to get to school by eight, since it takes about half an hour to get to school from my house.  I spend a lot more time driving than I realized, both to and from school and also around town if I go out with my friends.  I also spend less time on schoolwork during the weeknights than I thought I was.

Most Suprising Find In Time Management Data

The things that surprised me most about this project was how much time I spend on my laptop: I averaged about four hours a day.  I use it for a bit in the morning before I go to school, and again at lunchtime, and in the evening, when I get done with my schoolwork, I will usually play games or watch YouTube videos or just plain surf the Web.  Sometimes I will do this for several hours, usually until midnight or sometimes after midnight.  Until this project, I honestly did not realize how much time was spent on the computer and that did surprise me a little.  The time seems to go by fast when I am on the computer, and I think that is why I was so surprised as how much of my day was spent doing this.

Biggest Problem Uncovered By Time Management Data

The biggest problem I think I uncovered in this time management project was that I tend to wait until pretty late to get my schoolwork done, usually after dinner and after I have watched some TV with my family for a while.  Sometimes it is 7 or 8 o’clock before I even start my schoolwork and by them I am a bit tired and I don’t always concentrate very well on what I am studying.  I then will try to race through the homework sometimes and maybe not do as thorough job on it as I probably should.  I also text back and forth with my friends while I am doing the schoolwork, and this can break my concentration and make it harder to get through the assignments, since I am getting distracted with the texting.  Also, I will have my iPod on a lot or the TV in my room on while I am studying, and sometimes I find myself watching TV or listening to the music instead of working straight through on my schoolwork.

Solutions to Help Remediate Problem

I can feel stressed sometimes when I get home from school, especially if it’s been a busy day, and I do not want to have to dive right into schoolwork as soon as I get home. I enjoy the hang-out time I have after I get home and I also like playing on the computer and watching TV with my family and I do not want to give these things up. On the other hand, I do think I am putting schoolwork off until too late in the day and not always focusing on it. One thing I think I am going to try to help remediate this problem is to try and find some down times during the school day where I can do a least a little of my homework.  I have a free period in the afternoon which I could start using as a sort of study hall to get it some stuff done and I have a little time after classes but before band practice sometimes and could probably use that time better, too.  I also think I am going to try to do a little more schoolwork on the weekends, maybe on Sunday afternoon after church, since I do not have anything regular scheduled for that time, anyway, and usually just wind up goofing off.  I still want to save Friday and Saturday nights to go out with my friends, though, and I wouldn’t want to give up band or anything to have more time to study, since this is something I really enjoy.

Description of Personal Study Habits

I usually like to study for long periods of time at a stretch and try to push through all the work (unless I get distracted by TV or texting) and usually I am up in my bedroom when I do this, sometimes at my desk and sometimes in bed. I usually do not get up at all or move around much when I am working on something, because I want to get it done so I can get on to other things.   I think, though, that I am going to try to make some changes in my study habits: I will try to take short, regular breaks to sort of clear my head and make it easier to remember the stuff I am studying.  If I start getting more of my work done at school, I probably will start studying in the library more so I won’t have the distractions of my cell phone or iPod and will hopefully be able to get more work done in less time and also be able to remember it better.  If I can buckle down a bit, I will have more time after school for the things that I enjoy doing and won’t have to worry about cramming my homework in at the last minute.

Conclusion

I am glad that we took the time out to study time management in such a concrete way. To be honest, I really didn’t think this was going to be a very interesting project when we first talked about it, mostly because I thought that I knew pretty well how I  was spending my time and that the project wasn’t really necessary and wouldn’t teach me very much.  Having to record every minute of my day was a little frustrating but it did show me a lot about how the day is divided up for me.  The amount of time I spend driving, and the amount of time I spend on my laptop really did come as a surprise to me: it just didn’t feel like I was spending so much of my day that way. I really am going to try to change some of my time management habits and try to use my school time a little more wisely so I will be able to have more free time after school to do the things that I enjoy, while still getting good study time in, too.