Let’s face it: one of the biggest problems most high school students encounter is procrastination. One way to put procrastination in your past is to learn good time management skills. By effectively managing your precious high school time, you will do better in school as well as get better prepared for your ultimate goal of going to college.
You have all definitely heard of time management, but did you know that it is actually a skill that needs to be learned and developed? Just like any skill you want to improve, time management takes practice and has specific techniques and methods to make it work. One of the best pieces of advice comes from author Stephen Covey, who wrote Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, who said you should always begin with the end in mind. By doing this, you will make your time management activities support your ultimate goal.
Techniques/Methods
One method of time management is what is called the “chained to the desk” method. Sure it sounds terrible, but if you can perfect it, it will allow you to have much more free time and you won’t be so academically stressed on a daily basis. This method involves sitting down where you do your school work for a specific amount of time. This could be ten minutes or it could be an hour. Do this every day! And, during this time, do nothing but work on what you need to accomplish.
Another skill to master is to focus on the volume of work you have to eventually finish. If you have a 300 page novel to read in three weeks, figure out how many pages that is per night and make sure you stick to your schedule. If you have 50 history terms to know for your test in ten days, you know you need to do five terms a day. Stick with your plan each day until you meet your quota.
Using your tools for time management
In our fast paced world full of laptops and cell phones, why not use these devices to make sure you stay on task? Use your cell phone or laptop to send yourself or set up reminders of what you need to accomplish for school or when you have projects or papers due. There is a plethora of applications you can download that will help you manage your time.
Time management and college applications
You will soon discover, if you haven’t already, that filling out college applications is very time consuming. It requires you to collect an abundance of information and materials, such as transcripts, letters of recommendation, test scores, and even your personal statement essay. And, if you do this for multiple colleges, having excellent time management skills will definitely help you get everything collected in a timely fashion. Yes, there will still be a lot of stress, but planning and managing how you accomplish this task will lower that stress level.
Remember that when it come to preparing for college, Advanced College Solutions has “got your back”!