Time Management

Students who deliberately undertake to schedule their time are not ones who have decided to spend all their time studying and doing nothing else.They usually have decided to use efficiently the time they have to spend studying anyway, and to "de-sensitize" themselves to the many distractions that are commonly occurring.

What does this "desensitizing" involve?It means removing oneself from constant day-to-day, hour-to-hour decisions as to whether one will or will not spend the next hour studying,whether one will or will not go to the library to study,whether one will or will not go to a show on impulse, and whether or not to use that hour between classes to get next week's lab assignment out of the way?

A workable time schedule can make decisions for you, thus desensitizing you to momentary distractions. And, an hour of study in one course is not disturbed by wondering when you will study for another course, or when you'll be able to get out and have some fun. An adequate schedule includes those for you.

Keeping to a schedule is not a matter of "strong will power," but of the development of a habit of referring to the schedule and following its outline, and this habit development may take weeks of practice. Don't let the extra study that you may find necessary interfere with your recreation hours take time from unscheduled hours. Exceptions will occur, but afterwards return to the schedule's pattern