How I Approach Time Management

I’ve always had issues with figuring out how to manage my time. I remember back when I started this program, I had the worst procrastination ever. I would very often start assignments the day they were due. I remember I once started an assignment a few hours before the deadline.

Thankfully, as I’ve progressed through the program I’ve gotten a lot better at managing my time and minimizing my procrastination. Much of my improvement has been through necessity because the classes got progressivity harder and because I had to manage my job in addition to classes. As the classes got harder, I realized that I couldn’t procrastinate as much anymore and actually had to start working on assignments earlier. For example, my second quarter I was taking 271 and 162. During the last couple weeks of that quarter I had to complete two final projects that were both fairly difficult and time consuming. However, at that point I was still not very good at managing my time so I ended up starting the projects late and even thought I got good final grades I still didn’t end up doing as well on those projects as I hope.

Since then, I’ve tried a lot harder to start assignments early. Even if it just means looking at the assignment description. I also plan out my weeks ahead of schedule and try my best to keep myself aligned with this schedule. This allows me to know exactly when I should start assignments and how far along I should be at a certain point of the week. Something else that has helped me minimize my procrastination is realizing that I’m going to have to finish assignment regardless. So it is a lot better to finish them early instead of waiting to the last minute. I’ve also gotten into the mindset that if I finish my assignments early then that just gives me more flexibility to do what ever I want with my free time for the rest of the week. Moreover, this free time can be spend worry free as compared to when I would avoid assignments only to have that deadline constantly in my thoughts. In addition, starting assignments early allows me to get help from TA’s early on in the week when office hours are less likely to be congested.

I still have a long way to go in regard to improving the way I manage my time but I’ve definitely come a long was compared to when I started this program. One of my goals this quarter is to start assignments the day they are assigned. I am also trying to challenge myself to learn new things even if they aren’t required for a class. I feel that I am definitely going in the right direction and I’m excited to see how much better I will be by the end of this quarter.