Planning

You have probably used various kinds of planning tools before, including a daily or weekly planner, a month-at-a-glance planner, and so on. In this section, we introduce four planning tools and the thinking strategies that go along with each one: a Monthly Planner, a Weekly Objectives List, a Weekly Planner and a Time Log. It is important to keep in mind that the purpose of scheduling is not to enslave you to your planner, but rather to record your decisions about when certain things should happen.

The Monthly Planner

The monthly planner can be used as a time-bound memory aid, tracking major deadlines and exam dates, appointments, important anniversaries, birthdays, holidays, vacations and so on. But, you can get more out of the monthly planner if you use it to record interim deadlines and forecast upcoming busy periods as final deadlines approach. A properly completed monthly planner will indicate upcoming busy periods, show whether there is room in the plan for new tasks, and help you assess whether you are on target to achieve your goals. Let's say for example that you had an upcoming exam in your Introductory Microeconomics class. Start by entering the date of the exam so you don't forget it. Next, think of the tasks that comprise the goal of doing well in the exam, think about how long each step of the task should take, and enter a series of interim deadlines for each step between the start of your preparation for the exam and the exam date itself. Use these interim deadlines as milestones to indicate the progress of your study. (If you're prone to breaking your own interim deadlines, it can help to reinforce these by making appointments with a peer, an instructor, or a teaching assistant.)

Weekly Objectives List

If your current approach to time management is governed by to-do lists, then you'll be interested in the weekly objectives list. Think of the weekly objectives list as a muscle-bound to-do list. In essence, the weekly objective list is a to-do list with additional features to further decompose tasks into smaller units and to record time estimates for the task. Let's say for example that one of your goals for the year was to maintain your honours standing and that you had a series of exams coming up including one for first year Introductory Microeconomics (see below). You might set an objective to score a B+ or A grade on the exam and list this on your objectives list. Your next step would then be to consider a variety of study activities that would prepare you well for the examination. You might begin by entering your first activity, "complete readings and review lecture notes", in the activities column. Once you have entered your activity it is important to assign it a time estimate, in this case we've assigned this activity a three hour block of time. This block of time reflects an important principle in time estimating; when estimating time you might want to add time to the amount of time you think it will take you to complete the task. Try applying a factor of 1.5 to 2.0 to the estimate and refine your estimates from there on the basis of your experience with similar tasks. This is important because we tend to estimate without considering possible difficulties or interruptions. Once you have entered the first activity for study, you would continue with the others you have in mind. The final two columns on the form allow you to track whether or not you have scheduled and completed the activities you have listed. Your next step is to carry the listed activities, along with their associated time estimates, to your weekly planner to be scheduled.

The Weekly Planner

Take a look at your weekly planner. What do you have written in it? Likely, you list lecture times, tutorial times, laboratory times, times for extracurricular activities, and various other appointments. If this sounds like your schedule then you are probably under-using another very versatile time management tool because many of the most important tasks (homework activities which move you toward your goals) are left out of the picture. The implication of this should be clear: If it isn't on the schedule it won't get done.

Stepping from the weekly objectives list to the weekly planner is easy. Using the time estimates for the activities on the weekly objectives list as guides find a block of time of appropriate duration in your schedule. Then write in the activities one at a time in priority order until you have either scheduled all of your activities or you have run out of time spaces. A good idea here, if it seems you'll run out of time spaces, is to start scheduling the most important activities first. For instance, consider the following activity: "Complete readings and review notes." This activity might take 3 hours and could be placed almost anywhere in the week where you have time and where you'll likely be able to work. You might schedule three one-hour blocks, two 90 minute blocks or one three-hour block, depending on your preferences. The key her is to associate the specific task to specific times, avoiding making a schedule where the tasks are too closely scheduled or where important activities are assigned to unrealistic work times.

Construct a plan for each week, following the rhythm of your courses that meet weekly. To help make planning a routine activity, pick a regular day each week to schedule. Even with unexpected occurrences that can impact your schedule you assist yourself in making decisions that are governed by your desire to reach your goals. Without using a schedule you may be governed by your moment-to-moment moods which may lead you to make time decisions that take you away from your goals. Once your week is planned you will experience clarity of focus, your tendency to be distracted will be reduced and you will be certain of your reasons for doing the things you had planned. Committing yourself to a plan you've made represents a renewal of your motivation for the goals and tends to increase your time on task.

How much time is enough?

The time you spend on task has some relationship to the quality of work you end up producing. A good gauge to follow is to perform 2-3 hours of school work outside class for every hour of class time. Yes, this means for a full-time student with a 15 hour of class per week load the recommendation is to do between 30 and 45 hours of homework each week. Yes, that's a big jump, especially if you breezed through high school or previous years of university on less. This estimate simply reflects the time it actually takes to learn effectively at university (ISR, 1995a; ISR, 1995b). But this number shouldn't mean that you completely forego time for yourself. It is important to have some personal time. Even though you may work a part-time job (and doing so isn't necessarily counter-productive to success at school (ISR, 1995d)), you'll need to take some time for yourself and for recreation each week. A starting guideline might be something like 10% of your week, or 17 hours. What is more important than these specific targets is that you spend enough time on school work to ensure that you're successful and that you spend enough time outside of school to ensure that you have a healthy balance in your life. Keep in mind that using a planner in the way we're describing is a learned skill that will take time and patience to master. Keep your focus not on making the perfect plan or on executing every plan flawlessly, but on learning from your good and bad experiences and using this knowledge to improve subsequent plans.

Thursday, October 11, 2007 9:46:37 AM (Atlantic Standard Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0] | 

Apparently, I have not. 

In this final semester of nursing school, I find myself consistently behind, never ahead, but never too far behind that I can't catch up.  What is a girl to do?  Well, consider a typical week:  School on Wednesday and Thursday, along with a clinical every other Thursday morning, work 7a-7p Friday and Saturday, clincal 7a-7p on Sundays, and then catching up on sleep and homework on Monday and Tuesday.  I don't know how people do it.  How do people do it who have kids and other things besides work and school and a significant other?  Do they just not sleep?  What is the secret?

I'm trying to get myself on a schedule, but goodness gracious, that is hard.  After doing three 12 hour shifts in a row, homework does not sound like much fun.  Not that it ever sounds like fun, it's just that to find the motivation, it is nearly impossible. 

Nursing school is a real trip.  The road you take has a lot of bumps--there is no smooth sailing unless you have no other commitments and you can devote your entire life to studying and schoolwork.  For the majority of the people, that is not the case.  How to manage your entire life while in nursing school is something that I have not been able to do in 4 1/2 years.  I NEED NORMALCY!!!

What exactly is normalcy anyway?  I have been without it for so long that I couldn't tell you what it's like to even have a taste of it.  Papers, clinicals, homework, NCLEX review, plus work and everything else leaves me and most of my classmates in a constant state of chaos.  But it is so worth it.  I am going into such a rewarding career that all of the work and messiness and bull that I have put up will all be worth it.  So I have two more months of this tornado of a lifestyle.  I haven't been able to master the art of time management yet, and I don't think it's going to happen in the next 8 weeks.  Oh, well.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007 11:05:41 PM (Atlantic Standard Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0] | 

Conservative ideology has been given a chance, and it has run its course, to the detriment of the country and possibly to the near permanent hobbling of the Republican Party. Unfortunately, the rest of us were forced to suffer the injuries inflicted by its running its course straight into a brick wall, but the wounds will heal, and so will our nation.

The Right Wing think tanks, the Congress and the administration, together implemented the conservative agenda, and here we are. The disparity in wealth we are currently experiencing is by design and the infeasibility of a financial structure based on debt is the legacy of conservatism in practice.  A recent posting to Bill O’Reilly at the FOX News site in response to O’Reilly’s question (Where are the neo-cons?):  “There’s a reason the neo-cons have left the building, failure is the orphan these conservatives have no compassion for.”

Think of the great experiments in liberalism, Social Security, Medicare, the Environmental Protection Agency, the five day work week, child labor laws (the list is a long one), all still going and despite conservative intervention (attempt to destroy them) over the years, all still working relatively well considering. On the other side you have experiments in conservatism, trickle down economics, perpetual war to feed the military industrial complex, the unitary executive that says the President is above the law and should be above the law in times of crisis (of their own making), all have failed and all are costing the average American time, money, security and peace of mind.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007 2:11:00 PM (Atlantic Standard Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [3] | 

 I will not lie.... I missed both of my classes yesterday. I did not lie when I said that I didn't have a sitter for my 4 year old - I really didn't. But the whole truth is that I probably didn't look very hard when my regular sitter called off.

 It was a gorgeous summer day. Now, in my defense, I did do my readings from both classes. My homework was done for my Music Therapy class. My online quiz for A&P was done. After I did my readings, I took my 4 year old out and we spent the day playing, until it was time for pre-school. During the time he was in pre-school, I washed my car. I rode my horse. His pre-school overlaps with the last hour of my school day, so I figured that last hour probably wasn't going to do me much good in the grander scheme of things.

 Now this morning, when I woke up, I really felt... refreshed. I hadn't been aware of the stress I had been under until I got rid of some of it. The day spent outside, doing physical stuff, and playing with my kid had really wiped out a lot of carry-over stress from the weekend. Today I am happy and relaxed and ready to go to class tonight. Maybe my grades will suffer, but probably not too much - I'm a decent student, I have to be to keep my scholarships. But sometimes I think we need a break, a day off from our usual 'stuff,' a day where we enjoy ourselves like children during summer vacation. Now, if the weather yesterday had been grey and rainy, I may have made more of an effort to find a sitter.

 So I've used up my one absence for the semester that I allow myself to have, and quite frankly, I enjoyed myself!

Tuesday, October 09, 2007 11:35:54 AM (Atlantic Standard Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0] | 

It's 6:00 on a Monday evening, and I am in class.  It's an okay class.  It's not really that interesting of a class, so I spend my time checking my e-mail, setting up meetings, paying bills, etc.  Those are my priorities.  I am not intrigued enough in my class to turn off my laptop and give my professor my undivided attention.

Is that my fault?

To an extent, yes.  To an extent.

What is the purpose of a professor?  To teach?  To educate?  How can a professor expect to do this when he or she does not grasp my attention? 

Do not misunderstand me.  In three years, this is the first time that I have a "boring" class.  Several of my past instructors are quite entertaining in the classroom:  Dale Lanigan, Tom Estrella, Mark Christensen, Mark MacDowell, Barb Masten, Jean Kujawa, Dane Copti, and Kris Moline are my top picks.  They have a gift.  They have a way of teaching while entertaining.

But, is it the responsibility of a professor to entertain?

Anyways - so, I'm on my laptop during class.  I do not try to hide the fact that I am on it.  I do not have any sound turned on, and I believe that I type fairly quietly.  My professor blatantly asks me what I am doing on my laptop.  I do not lie.  May I have hurt this professor's feelings?  I did not intentionally try to.  However, he asked me a question, and I am a blunt and to-the-point person. 

Now - I usually use my laptop to take notes during class.  Also, when a professor mentions something that intrigues me, I google it and save it to read later.  I know people that play games in class or watch movies during class - I have been guilty of this a couple of times.  I just could not miss that last episode of "Lost" last season! 

The question that arises is whether or not laptops should be permitted in the classroom.  I have heard arguments for both.  But, is it not my own fault if I choose to devote my attention to my laptop instead of my professor?  I have paid my tuition, and it is no one's fault but my own that I am not choosing to pay attention.  my question is, should a professor be held responsible for being unable to grasp and hold my attention?

Monday, October 08, 2007 6:25:49 PM (Atlantic Standard Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [3] | 

On October 2 at the Building Dedication and State of the College Address, Lourdes College officially opened its newest academic building to the public. Over 500 faculty, staff, students, community members and donors attended the event.

Lourdes President, Dr. Robert C. Helmer, gave a brief history of the College’s growth and future goals. Additional speakers included Sr. Diana Lynn Eckel, Congregational Minister; Sr. Ann Carmen Barone, Vice President for Mission and Ministry; and Jeff Streeter, Student Government Association President. 

Lead benefactors of the academic building, Mike and Gloria McAlear, Cleves and Kathy Delp and Brad and Kathy Delp, were recognized and awarded a gift from Lourdes College during the event. Afterward, attendees toured the newly-opened building.

Dr. Helmer presents the Delps with a special gift

The public tours the new WIN Center

Friday, October 05, 2007 11:31:22 AM (Atlantic Standard Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0] | 

All the way from Donegal, Ireland, the edgy all girl rock band brought their music and electric show to the Franciscan Center of Lourdes College in September. The concert, part of the Lourdes “Performing Artist Series,” showcased their infectious blend of edgy melodic rock and close harmonies.   

The Screaming Orphans are a group of four sisters who write and perform their own music. Influenced by the sounds of REM and the Cranberries, they have made a commitment to use their music to end violence against women worldwide. The Screaming Orphans have served as spokeswomen for The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). 

photo courtesy of Krystle King, Lourdes College student

Friday, October 05, 2007 10:18:54 AM (Atlantic Standard Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0] | 

Time Awareness & Time Tracking

It will help you manage your time well if you know where your time actually gets spent. One very helpful way of determining your actual usage of time is to track your time. The process here is like making a schedule, but it works in reverse. Instead of writing things in that you are planning to do, time logging is a process of writing down the things that you have already done. Doing this is sort of a get-to-know-yourself exercise because this procedure will highlight many of your habits that you might selectively ignore currently. For instance, some people find that every time they plan to do math homework they end up watching television. Other people just can't seem to follow their schedule until the week before finals. Whatever your time habits, time tracking will help you adjust and fine-tune your time management practices. Having accurate information about your time usage patterns can serve as another important point of reference for self-monitoring. A few ways to track your time follow:

Strategy #1: Time Tracking is fairly straightforward. At the end of every hour jot yourself a quick note about how you actually spent your time for that hour. The note needn't be long; one sentence or less should suffice. If how you spent your time doesn't match an already planned activity, simply enter a comment as to what you really did during that time. This way you will be able to review patterns that emerge in your use of time and make adjustments to improve your productivity.

Strategy #2: Some people find it helpful to modify the planning page to facilitate tracking time. The modifications are easy enough: make two columns on your paper for each day of the week. In one column, write down the plan you are trying to follow; in the second column, make notes on what you actually did with your time. The side-by-side comparison is very telling and an excellent way to figure our where you're not using time in the way you intend.

Strategy #3: Another effective way to make changes and get results from your time management strategies is to summarize your time use by time category such as: sleep, study, work, travel and so on. Before doing the summary, estimate the amount of time that you think you spend on the various activities listed on the form below and enter these in the "expected" row of the summary sheet. Feel free to add any additional categories that might be helpful. Then log your time for one week on an hour by hour basis. When the week is over summarize your time by category for each day, add up the values for all seven days of the week, and write the totals in the "actual" row of the summary sheet.

Summarizing your time use allows you to understand how much time you really spend in the various areas of your life. Take a look at the example form to the right; it is a sample that we have used in many workshops with students. It is almost certain that you will see a notable difference between the number of hours you expected to use in certain categories and the actual number of hours you spend. If you find that you spend more time in one area than you wanted, and less in another, the weekly summary of time use clearly indicates which activities to reduce to find the extra time you want for that neglected area of your life.

However you choose to understand the differences between your expected use of time and your actual use of time, your focus should be on trying to detect and adjust patterns in your own real use of time that spell trouble for you reaching your goals. (For those of you freaked out by knowing exactly where you spend your time because it only seems to reinforce your sense of time pressure, read chapter 15 of Ralph Keyes' book Timelock: How life got so hectic and what you can do about it.)

Here's something to think about: Various published resources and informal studies report that, in Canada and the United States, fully half of the 168 hours available in a week (that is, on average 84 of those hours) are used up for the "basics", including sleeping, eating, washing and beautifying, and commuting from home to school and to work. (Robinson and Godbey, 1997) How do your own numbers compare? How will you spend the remaining 84 hours per week?

Thursday, October 04, 2007 10:02:25 AM (Atlantic Standard Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0] | 

   The average stresses are beginning to get to me, the average misunderstanding parent, the overly dramatic, and attention stealing siblings, and all the miss-haps that occur on a daily basis. My father is visiting Ohio, and I am uncertain how i feel about that. He was posted in England, and now he has returned to his home in Virginia. As far as i can remember he was always on assignments from the NAVY, now that i am able to see him, i don’t care to. Horrible i know, but i do not see my life being like a happy Disney Movie, I can try to get my mother involved, but she will be cynical, i can try to get my father involved but he will be obtuse. School is kicking my butt, and some how already the spring semester class registration already is beginning. HOW!? I don't even feel like school has begun for the fall still.

A new Barnes and Noble opened in Maumee, and it’s buzzing with exciting new shops surrounding it. I haven’t been able to enjoy the scenery of fountains and architecture, with all that comes to mind at that single moment that I am at ease. So I sit and stare at the organized piles of planned work to do. That I should be doing, and feel like as I begin, it grows… The never ending load of obligations, Welcome to College or Welcome to Life? 

Tuesday, October 02, 2007 8:49:35 PM (Atlantic Standard Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0] |