Presentation Audit

How to Get Control of Your Time

The event, How to Get Control of Your Time, took place on January 25, 2018 in Diffenbaugh Room 128. The event was a lecture-styled seminar about time management, or the conscious control of the amount of time that is spent on schoolwork.

The primary message/purpose of the event was to help college students identify their time wasters and deal with them in order to reach their goals. According to Todd Rakes, there are two different types of time wasters: self-imposed and system-imposed. Self-imposed time wasters are self-explanatory, but they are the things that we impose on ourselves instead of doing our work, like going on social media, hanging out with friends, texting, or watching Netflix. System-imposed time wasters are things that someone else imposes on us that we cannot control, like when Canvas goes down, WiFi goes down, or when there is traffic. Surprisingly enough, people are more likely to change system-imposed time wasters. Thus, Rakes says that students need to accept themselves for who they are, since it is very unlikely they will break their habits and eliminate their self-imposed time wasters. A key to time management is to be realistic. Instead, students should learn how to get control of their time wasters.

The ultimate goals of getting in control of your time are efficiency and having more free time in order to have a guilt-free academic college experience. The benefits of good time management are that it: increases efficiency and effectiveness, eliminates cramming and procrastination, lessens stress and anxiety, and creates a well-balanced student. In order to develop good time management skills, some things students can do are: clarify and record their goals, identify procrastination traps and make them an incentive, make tasks look smaller and easier to handle, implement the 10-minute plan, choose the most productive environment, accept themselves and give themselves time to change and improve, and commit to a time management routine.

Todd Rakes, who presented the information, is a Teaching Instructor at Florida State University, based out of the Academic Center for Excellence, or ACE.

The main thing to consider about the event logistics was that it was put together to be presented in Diffenbaugh specifically for COM2740. Originally, the event was supposed to be held in the William Johnston Building in room G060. However, because the event planners could not accommodate a high amount of students, the event came to the classroom. In the room itself, the lights were all on, and the room was a little warm. At the beginning of the lecture, Rakes handed out a worksheet in order for students to interact with the material he was speaking about. Rakes prepared a PowerPoint presentation in the front of the classroom. No prior knowledge is known about how the event was advertised, but the class was informed about how the event would come to Diffenbaugh. There was plenty of space for students and for Todd to give his lecture.

Comprising the audience were COM2740 students. The audience was full of primarily undergraduate students, who were mostly female. There were about 140 students in attendance, but about 20 people were absent from the lecture. The correct audience was targeted since the lecture was mainly geared towards students aiming to get control of their time to work effectively on schoolwork in order to have more free time and reach the main goal of a “guilt free academic college experience”. Since the event was also put on by the Division of Undergraduate Studies ACE Learning Studio, it was clear it was geared towards FSU students, and more specifically, undergraduate students who most likely do not know how to manage their time as well as graduate students.

The message was delivered by Todd Rakes who mostly stood at the front of the classroom behind a podium while he went through the PowerPoint presentation. He walked around the classroom, too, in order to keep the audience engaged. The beginning of the lecture was mostly delivered based off interaction with the worksheet that was handed out. Rakes actively asked questions towards the audience in order to engage them in the material and to encourage them to take notes on the information. The most important part of Rakes’ presentation was the schedule he provided students on the worksheet. Most of the lecture was spent observing Rakes’ own personal planned-out schedule and discussing how to construct one by logistically planning out each week by 30-minute intervals. Rakes actively told jokes and stories in order to keep the audience engaged and deliver his message in a relatable way. By doing so, it was an effective way to keep an audience of young adults entertained and focused.

The audience was actively engaged in the content, as they answered questions that Rakes asked and gave their insight into certain topics. At the end of the presentation, students asked questions, especially ones about how to successfully construct their schedules. For example, a student asked how she should construct her schedule when her work schedule is constantly changing. By observing the students, they seemed to all be taking notes, but not yet filling out their schedules. A few students left early during/shortly after the question and answer session. However, I think most students were actively engaged because it pertained to their schoolwork and lives.

In regards to what worked well and/or what did not work, or what could have been improved upon, my biggest suggestion regards the worksheets that were handed out to students. In the lecture, the majority of it was centered around a personal time schedule (that was printed on the back of the worksheet for each individual student to fill in) and how to complete it. However, I felt it would have been better suited to exclude this portion altogether and focus the lecture on something that students would be more inclined to take initiative and do. Most of the students I observed had not even turned over their sheet to glance at the schedule, and I did not see anyone fill it out at all. I strongly believe that the majority of students attending the lecture will not utilize this resource out of either laziness, a lack of motivation, or not feeling the need to fill out a piece of paper that they were encouraged to “memorize” after a week. Since a main take-away of the lecture focused on staying realistic and “knowing yourself”, I thought it did not make sense to encourage students to fill out a schedule and stick to it if they have not developed good time management skills yet.

In terms of communication theory, Rakes effectively used symbols to represent different topics he was discussing. For example, when he was talking about self-imposed and system-imposed time wasters, he used different words that triggered different ideas in the audience’s head in order to help them arrive to their understanding of the concept. Specifically, when the audience heard “Netflix”, they thought of wasting time by binge-watching a series. When they heard “laundry” or “traffic”, they were able to associate these words with system-imposed time wasters. Rakes knew these words would make the audience connect these words as things that are tedious, or take a long time. By discussing these words in the “time-wasting” segment of his lecture, the audience then associated negative feelings to these words, which is an example of how to use words and influence their connotation.

As this was a public communication setting, the three principles of communication applied perfectly to Rakes’ lecture. These three principals have to do with participation and the communicators themselves. In the lecture, Rakes was able to get continuous participation from the audience, whether they were answering his questions or asking them based on their own inquiries. Also, Rakes as a communicator was able to draw on his past and present experiences to make the lecture more relatable and allow the audience to identify his experiences with their own. He discussed his time in college and even his experiences today in his work life to make time-management seem like an important topic throughout life. Also, because this was a formal lecture, it was clear the role he played as a communicator. As a Teaching Instructor, he was obviously in authority and established himself as a knowledgeable source on the topic.

“How to Get Control of Your Time” is a free workshop for currently enrolled Florida State University students. It is put together by the Administration, Provost/Academic Affairs, and ACE departments. Specifically, Holly Hunt is the go-to contact name as the event coordinator.