Time Management

You can’t predict everything. Even when you give yourself extra time, some tasks might take longer than planned. Unexpected events can come up and slow you down. Your bike could break on your way to pick up your sister, or you might misplace the notes you need to finish your homework. It’s important to have a schedule and to stick to it whenever you can. It’s also important to be flexible when you need to. Be ready to change and adjust your plan so that a small surprise doesn’t disrupt your whole day.

According to the passage, you should have a plan

• all of the time and stick to it.

• But be ready to change it if needed.

• Only when you need to pick up your sister.

• Only when you want to surprise someone.

Time management isn’t just about planning to get tasks done; it’s about doing them! To be productive, try to avoid distractions and focus on the task at hand. If you’re doing homework, for example, stay away from your phone. That way you can fully concentrate. It might be tempting to multi-task, or do more than one thing at the same time. But research has found that people who regularly multi-task can’t recall information or pay attention as well as those who complete one task at a time.

Which of these people is multi-tasking?

• Suzanne finishes washing and drying the dishes. Then she calls her father.

• Elmo is studying for his math test at his desk.

• Vivi takes a walk around her neighborhood before dinner.

• James is writing his teacher an email while talking to his friend on the phone.

After you list all your tasks and estimate how long each task will take, you need to prioritize and rank things in order of importance. Which tasks matter the most? There many things to consider. You might think about your goals for the future. Maybe you want to beat your personal record at your next swim meet. That means you’ll have to practice a lot. You might also consider deadlines. When is that swim meet? This week? If so, you’d want to give swim practice priority over something that isn’t quite as soon or a task that won’t help you reach a personal goal.

Prioritizing is about balance. Not everything has to help you accomplish a goal. And just because a goal is long-term, doesn’t mean you should forget about it. “Pencil things into” your schedule for the future, so you don’t lose sight of fun events or long-term goals.

Which of these can help you prioritize your tasks?

• your goals

• deadlines

• fun events

• all of the above

Another way to prioritize is to think about the consequences, or the effects, of your behavior. What might happen if you don’t spend time on a certain task? For example, what if you don’t spend enough time studying for a geography test? You might get a bad grade on the test, which will affect your overall grade for the class. What if you don’t spend a half-hour playing video games after school? You might miss out on your gaming time, but there probably won’t be any other significant consequences. Thinking through the possible outcomes can help you determine what’s most important to get done first.

Which of these questions would you ask yourself when considering the consequences of your behavior?

• What would happen if I skipped baseball practice?

• How long will baseball practice be today?

• Who is coming to baseball practice?

• What time is baseball practice?

It’s important to stick to your schedule, but you’re not a robot! You can make time in your schedule for breaks. Clear your mind, have a snack, do something active or relax. You don’t have to keep going from one thing to the next without stopping. Make the breaks part of your schedule, and then you’re still sticking to your plan even if you’re going for a quick jog around the block!

A robot most likely

• never gets work done.

• can jog very quickly.

• doesn’t need breaks.

• always needs snacks.

A daily planner helps you keep track of all the hours in a day so that you make the most of your time. But a monthly calendar is useful too. On a monthly calendar, you can mark longer-term deadlines and goals. You can hang a monthly calendar on your wall or locker, or you can use a digital calendar that syncs with your email or phone. That way, you’ll be sure to see your upcoming events and deadlines often. You can also add reminders to your monthly calendar in the weeks leading up to an important event.

Which of these can you do with a digital calendar?

• hang it on a wall or locker

• write in it with a pencil or pen

• tear off pages as you finish tasks

• set reminders about important tasks

Don’t procrastinate by delaying or putting something off! We procrastinate because we don’t know where to start and are feeling overwhelmed. It helps to break a big task into smaller steps or to schedule tasks backwards from an end goal.

You have a research paper due in four weeks. How will you get there? What are the subtasks for this assignment? You’ll need to choose your topic, find sources, read and take notes, write a draft and revise and edit it. Plan the tasks backward. At the end of four weeks, you want a complete research paper. By three weeks, you need a rough draft. That leaves a week for revisions and edits. All your research and notes should be completed by the second week. So this week, you should start by choosing your topic and finding your sources. Instead of procrastinating you can head to the library and start on step one!

What does it mean to “plan the tasks backward”?

• Do the quickest thing first.

• Start by procrastinating. Then make a plan and hope to reach your goal.

• Start with your goal in mind. Then plan how you can achieve it.

• Do all of your work upside down.