Midterm season is in full-gear and with all the assignments, essays and midterms due this week, it’s not always easy to stay on top of things.
Although Reading Week has just passed, you might feel as though you didn’t get enough work done, if any.
Academics are easily the largest cause of stress for students, but whether you’re in your first year or fourth year, it’s never too late to master arguably the most important skill: time management.
If you feel like your time management could use some improvement, you can head over to the Teaching & Learning Commons, located on the 2nd floor of the Peters Building for study skills and course support.
There, you will be able to speak with staff (by appointment) about various study strategies, and perhaps most importantly, time management skills.
“We’re a team that has three different units that are a part of one. So, there’s our transition and learning services which is the traditional study skills team, there’s the math and stats skills support centre and our writing services. So, between all of those, together we make up student success,” said Lindsay Lawrence, manager for transition and learning services.
Other academic success services include peer-led course support held on a weekly basis, wherein students work in groups to review difficult course material.
“The big focus for us is just helping students upgrade their study skills. We recognize that students have a lot of study skills, it doesn’t always feel like it at the time, but when they want to just improve their efficiency or their level of understanding or whatever, then we just help upgrade the skills,” said Lawrence.
The big three components when it comes to time management is having a long term plan — so knowing everything that’s due, kind of ‘big-picture’, throughout the term. Following a weekly schedule so that you know every week you have a plan for how you’re going to get everything done, and then a daily to-do list or a task list of what you need to get done every day.
— Lindsay Lawrence, manager for transition and learning services
Self-regulating your academics and assignments can seem intimidating and while giving yourself enough time to properly prepare for a test sounds simple enough, without refined time management skills, it can be overwhelming to know what and what not to prioritize first.
Luckily, time management can be as easy as three simple steps.
“The big three components when it comes to time management is having a long term plan — so knowing everything that’s due, kind of ‘big-picture’, throughout the term. Following a weekly schedule so that you know every week you have a plan for how you’re going to get everything done, and then a daily to-do list or a task list of what you need to get done every day,” said Lawrence.
“So it starts big and then it works down. Every day there needs to be something on that list that you’re able to check off so that you’re moving forward, getting to the end of the week and not adding a whole bunch of extra things that you need to do but haven’t accomplished… that’s where it snowballs really quickly when students get behind because they’re leaving it to the last minute.”
Simply put, the biggest component towards successful time management is having an outline of what you need to get done.
“Time management is big, it’s not the same for every person and we don’t have one sort of package to say, ‘if you do this you can manage your time and everything will be great.’ A lot of what we do is help students figure out what’s the best time management system for them.” Lawrence said.
Whether it be on your laptop or on an agenda in front of you, finding a system that works for you and that you can stick to is the ultimate goal.
Starting this year, students have the option to earn their Academic Skills Certificate (ASK), by attending eight workshops and study sessions.
When completed, the certificate can be entered on your Laurier Experience Record.
The first workshop, “Mastering Time Management” is being hosted on Oct 24, in BA209 at 2:30 p.m.
“All students are here because they want to be successful, so starting to focus on developing those time management skills helps students be successful in all other areas. Then you can start to improve reading strategies, and critical thinking or writing strategies when you’ve given yourself time to do that appropriately, so I think it’s really the foundation for being a successful university student,” said Lawrence.
