It’s a super-busy point of the semester, and many of you have expressed that you are burnt out and having difficulty keeping up with all-the-things. I feel you. Time Management is, unfortunately, something that we all struggle with …

The reality is that we each have tons of responsibilities, seemingly endless to-dos, & competing priorities, and there are only so many hours in a day and so much energy, brainpower, & motivation at our disposal during those hours.

When we are under a deadline or feel the pressure of a time crunch, we tend to procrastinate (which ends up causing even more of a time crunch!). And whether we are consciously aware of it or not, procrastination is deeply connected to a whole range of emotions that start bubbling up: we feel overwhelmed, stressed, anxious, frustrated, angry, scared, hopeless, depressed. We become stretched too thin, more reactive, less able to productively meet our goals and to be the best versions of ourselves. Then we feel shame, guilt, regret, exhaustion. And all of these emotions can start to chip away at our physical health. Of course, if we get sick, we fall more behind, and the more we fall behind the more stressed we get, which makes us sicker … and round and round we go.

Just because time management is hard, though, doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. An important part of both student success & self-care is to learn how to effectively manage your time. That takes becoming more aware of your own patterns and habits in relation to time management, learning skills and techniques to improve your time management, and then mindfully and diligently working to make the progress.

If you know that you struggle at certain times and in certain circumstances, don’t beat yourself up for that — but do seek out the skills & support you need. This workshop will help!

Complete the Time Management Inventory, the Time Management Reflection Reflection, and then watch + annotated the Time Management and SMART Goals video. All of these links are from the UNC at Chapel Hill Learning Center’s Tips & Tools website, which has a whole range of amazing resources for student success. I strongly encourage you to check them out (especially the ones on procrastination!) and use them as resources going forward.

After you’ve read + annotated this workshop & the above texts, share your thoughts on time management. You can approach any way you’d like, but I encourage you to consider the following:

  • What are some of the emotions that come up for you when you’re struggling with time management? What about when you more successfully manage your time?
  • What are your default habits when you have a big deadline?
  • What are some strategies you have used to manage your time? How effective are they?
  • What new things did you learn from this workshop?
  • Do some of your own research (it can just be googling around) on time management, & share what you’ve learned with the class (don’t forget to cite!).
  • If you had to give your peers one piece of advice on time management, what would it be, & why?

Comments (& at least a few replies to others’ comments) are due by 12pm (noon) on Friday, 11/18. Looking forward to a great conversation here!