Student guide to: Managing time effectively, homework discipline

Studying only hours before a big exam usually doesn’t pay off. Academic advisor Laura Hardin said that students need to be aware of time they waste throughout the day, and to have an effective study plan.

Spring is almost here with the promise of green grass, chirping birds, gorgeous flowers and … Fs?

With the first month of the semester almost gone, students should harness the power of time management to make sure that they can enjoy the gifts of spring with their heads held high.

1. Monitor your time. Laura Hardin, director of the UNA Center for Academic Advising and Retention Services, said that students should be aware of how much time that they waste during the day.

Students should make an hour-by-hour grid of what they do all day so that they can identify bad habits and make necessary changes.

“Your time is valuable, and you need to know what you are doing with it,” she said.

2. Make a plan. Students should make an effective study plan and follow it. This means mapping out a week, a month, or the entire semester so that the student can know what they have to do each day to not get behind.

Larry Bates, a UNA psychology professor, said that he made Fs his first time in college because he did not have a plan. He came back with an intricate plan and made As in the rest of his college courses- including his Master’s and Ph.D. studies.

Bates said that he would sit down with his professors and make out a master study sheet for his courses- this sheet was a giant calendar of everything that he needed to do each day for the semester.

When Bates had chapters to read or papers to write he would break them down into small parts and complete each part over a series of days.

“Human beings have a terrible habit,” Hardin said. “We sabotage ourselves. We don’t need anybody else to do a number on us; we do it on ourselves because we don’t have a plan. If students have a study plan then they avoid sabotaging themselves.”

3. Break it down. Students should be as specific as possible when they write down their to do lists. This means breaking down each assignment into parts.

This will make the task at hand less daunting and will allow the student to see progress in the assignment as they check off each part.

Bates said that the problem with to-do lists is that people don’t put them down as actions; they just put down something like “write a paper.” Students should, instead, break it into small actions for each day, such as “find a topic for the paper.”

“All dissertations, all theses, all papers in college are elephants. And you know how to eat an elephant: one bite at a time,” Bates said.

4. Stick with it. Students should take ownership of their courses. This means that students should make every effort to stick to their study plan so that they will not get behind and feel the rush of the approaching deadlines.

“If you are not up to getting it together … you are no longer a student; you are a fireman,” said Bates. “You are just putting out the next fire. It is no longer your plan. You have lost the freedom to make it your course. Now it’s just meeting deadlines.”

5. Take advantage of unconventional study time. Students should utilize the free time that they would normally waste, such as waiting at a doctor’s office.

Hardin said that students should take advantage of the time between classes, whether it is a long break or only 15 minutes. Students can use that time to review their notes from the last class or study for the next class.

Bates said that he could read a page or two between classes and could finish his entire study plan for the day by utilizing the time he had between classes.

Bates said, “If I get stopped on the interstate, I have a book with me. I am going to pull it out and get something done while I am in a traffic jam.”

For more help with study skills, workshops are being held every Wednesday 12 p.m.-12:50 p.m. and Thursday 2:30 p.m.-3:20 p.m. through March 10 on the first floor of the Stone Lodge. All UNA students are invited and encouraged to attend. For more information, call Laura Hardin at 256-765-4722.