By Amy Faust || F&M Professional Staff, Contributing Writer
Time management is not exciting. It is not sexy or innovative or rebellious. And it’s one of those strange facilitators of productivity that appears to take time away from actually producing. For these reasons it can be hard to justify spending time on time management. I would argue, however, that it is one of the most important ways to spend your time to make the most of your time.
To make the most of time management, one should have a holistic and balanced perspective. Avoid the mistake of only including all the stuff you have to do—classes, jobs, school work, practices, etc. and be sure to include the stuff you want to do—spend time with friends, read a book for pleasure, go for a walk, rest. A good time management system will include the haves and the wants and a great time management system will not separate the two; a great time management system will prioritize the aspects of one’s life that keep all the other parts going.
Let’s use a metaphor. You are a car. Your academic work is all the places you have to go and the things you need to do. Rest, self-care, health and having fun are your gas. Sometimes it is hard to justify stopping to get gas because you are running so late. You can accomplish what you need on fumes and stop later. But then later, you’re on to the next thing. You are feeling stressed, but you continue to push on anyway. You get to your next task somehow and, then, at the end of the day you’re too exhausted to stop for gas. The next day, you run out of gas completely and can’t do any of the things you hoped you would. If only you had just taken the time to stop when you first knew you should, you wouldn’t have run out of gas and you would have been able to fully complete your jobs. See where I’m going with this?
Take time to manage your time and take time to include self-care and rest in that plan. If you want or need support in doing this, meet with a Peer Academic Coach. They specialize in supporting students at F&M find and maintain a life balance. You can meet with one here.
F&M Professional Staff member Amy Faust is a contributing writer. Her email is afaust@fandm.edu.