Center for Student Success

Seven Idea For Finding Time

 

. COMBINE 2 ACTIVITIES: If you ride the bus, use the time to read a book. When walking to class, mentally review a list from one of your classes or mentally organize a paper you are writing.

. BE PREPARED TO STUDY WHILE YOU WAIT: Whether waiting in a line for tickets or in the doctor’s office, bring something to study with you. Twenty minutes reviewing Spanish verbs is a better use of time than rifling through an old magazine.

. USE THE TELEPHONE TO GET INFORMATION: If you need to see if a book has come into the library, call! Any contact or information you can gather by phone saves you important travel time.

. HAVE A SYSTEM FOR FINDING/LOCATING IMPORTANT THINGS: Be consistent about where you put things you will need—papers, pens, keys, books. Save the time you would lose looking for these things.

. DON’T LET A ONE-HOUR TASK TAKE THREE HOURS: If you are working on a simple task, don’t let it be a time hog. Put the right amount of time into each assignment. Budget your time.

. DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME: “If you haven’t got the time to do it right, when will you find the time to do it over?” A few minutes or less to make a backup copy of a report may save your great grief if your paper is lost on the computer’s hard drive.

. RUTHLESSLY CUT DOWN ON TELEVISION OR INTERNET SURFING! 

 

Based on L.E. Flemminga and J. Leet, Becoming a successful student
New York: Harper Collins College Publishers, 1994.

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