Manage Your Time: Time Management for Graduate Students

One of the first things that graduate students (and college students too!) learn is that there is never enough time in the day. How can you keep yourself sane when you're overloaded with courses, research, teaching, and a life? Try using time management techniques to get organized. Time management simply involves considering your obligations and making choices about how to use your time. Here are some tips:
Use a school planner or calendar with plenty of space to record assignments, lists, and appointments.
Take the time to plan and organize. Take a few minutes every day to examine your calendar, note your upcoming assignments, and update your lists.
Break large assignments and tasks into their component parts. For example, break a term paper into many smaller and more manageable tasks such as finding a topic, conducting literature searches, gathering articles and books, reading and taking notes, writing an outline, writing the first draft, and revising. Make a list of all tasks required to complete a major assignment. You'll find that crossing items off of the list is quite rewarding!
Set goals and deadlines for yourself. For example, set realistic deadlines for each stage of completing a major assignment (e.g., term paper).
Prioritize your lists and tasks. Take the "big-picture" approach. Look over all that you need to complete and decide what's most important. Which assignment is due first? Which is the most difficult?
Be flexible. While daily to-do lists are wonderful for helping you to organize and prioritize your life, remember that there will always be interruptions and distractions. Try to allow time for them.
Go with your flow. Think about your biological peaks and lows. Are you a morning person? Or are you at your best at night? Plan your day accordingly. Save your most difficult work for the times when you're at your best.
Say "No." Sometimes we take on too much. Whether it's extra courses, job responsibilities, or extracurricular activities, consider how important each is to you before agreeing.
Make use of wasted time. Have you ever noticed how much time you spend commuting, standing in lines, and waiting (for doctors, advisors, etc.)? Carry pocket work to make use of that time that would otherwise be wasted. Carry a short reading assignment or flash cards for studying. Or use the time to write in your planner and organize yourself. Ten minutes here, fifteen minutes later, it all adds up and you'll find that you can get more done.

Keys to Successful Time Management

Keys to Successful Time Management
*Self knowledge and goals: In order to manage your time successfully, having an awareness of what your goals are will assist you in prioritizing your activities.
*Developing and maintaining a personal, flexible schedule: Time management provides you with the opportunity to create a schedule that works for you, not for others. This personal attention gives you the flexibility to include the things that are most important to you.

Advantage of Time Management

Advantages of Time Management
*Gain time
*Motivates and initiates
*Reduces avoidance
*Promotes review
*Eliminates cramming
*Reduces anxiety

How to go about managing TIME

How to go about managing TIME

LIST all your activities on a piece of paper. How much time do you spend, on average, completing homework or studying?

What organizations do you belong to and when do they meet?

What sports are you involved in and when are the practices and games held? You get the picture. Put them in your
planner, in PENCIL, in case you need to adjust things later on.

PRIORITIZE. Give each item a number or letter as to how important it is. and according to when it needs to be
completed.

For example:
A. Needs to be done today.
B. Can wait until A tasks are finished.
C. Not that important and can wait until a later time or date.

GET REAL. You may want to list that Biology assignment as a C task but if your marks slip we don't see many Cricket Matches or Nach Baliya or BIG Boss in your future. Keep yourself honest and get the studying done first so you can fun later on.

Stay FOCUSED. The key to a managing your time with a calendar or planner is to stick with it. If it sits in your dresser drawer and never is used, it isn't serving its purpose very well. Make sure to keep at it and keep it up to date. Cross off tasks

If you do this SUCCESS IS YOURS !

Managing time is the best way for students to succeed

Studying is a big commitment and needs time to work on it. Managing time is the best way for students to succeed. By managing your time, other commitments can be fulfilled and you can study without distractions. But finance and child care are serious problems. I found that the only way to get good grades was by doing less paid work so that I had more time for my studies. The problems are real, but make your action plan for the week and stick to it. This will help you study and deal with your other responsibilities in the best way.
You need to balance time. If you are bad at balancing things make a personal timetable. Even if you do not stick to it, you will have an idea what you should be doing each day. This is better than trying to do everything each day and, at the end of the week, not achieve anything.