When I started classes this time around, I made a conscious decision to make school a
priority. So with that I decided to make a to do list. Writing down everything I have to do in
the course of the day and seeing it in writing reminds me of what is important.Some
effective time management strategies that have worked for me in home, school and work
besides the to do list is taking time thru the course of the day to check things off of my to do
list. That gives me a sense of accomplishment and keeps my attitude positive and moving
forward. While working at home I became a really big procrastinator. Because I could work
at my own pace instead of completing my work daily, I would put everything off until the
last minute. It would put me in a crunch because I would wait until right before I had my
weekly reporting meeting to complete my assignment. So I was always taking the chance of
rushing and something not being correct. I was lucky in the aspect because I hardly ever
made a mistake. For me becoming a procrastinator effected every aspect of my life, from
grocery shopping to exercising I just started to put everything off for as long as I could. So
eventually over the 2 years that I worked from home I put on 15 pounds and everything just
became disorganized. As time went on I didn't like how I was feeling and decided to do
something about it and that is how I came up with my to do list.After this weeks reading I
realize that I was on the right path but there are a few other tools like prioritizing my time
and on my to do list instead of just writing them down prioritize them in order of
importance. Also I am going to start keeping track of how much time I spend on doing
different activities. In order to find a balance and prioritize your academic, profession, and
personal responsibilities, you will need to make a list of your and prioritize. You will need
to create a list starting with whats high priority to least priority on what needs to be
completed. You will also need to create a timeline on when these things need to be
completed by. I would also say to give yourself enough time to get these things completed
and be reasonable. I have learned that when I utilize Microsoft word and strategically add
events to my calendar, it sets reminders that help me remember what my commitments were.
I find myself checking my calendar either the night before I go to bed or just when I wake
up. I find myself being successful when planning and executing what was planned at a
earlier time. When I first started school and I worked full time I kept on finding myself
waiting until the last minute to do my homework and I would struggle. Setting time aside
during the week and on the weekends, I found myself not being in such of a crunch. To find
balance and prioritize my academic, professional, and personal responsibilities could be a
struggle for most of people including myself. From what I have learned from this lesson
about making time and how to make time is that you need to write down what you need to
do then number them what is due or important to be done first. Some effective time
management strategies that I have used at home is set myself a time limit like a day certain
things need done like, Mondays are the days I go food shopping for the week and anything
we need I get then. Or when I have to put the clothes away from being washed I leave them
on the bed until I put my son to bed then I stay in the bedroom watch my shows while
putting clothes away. A time when my own procrastination put me in a time crunch was
when we were going to Florida for our anniversary. I waited and waited to pack, mind you I
had to pack for a total of five people including myself. I pack everyone but myself and my
husbands things, the day we had to leave I got stuck packing our things. The reasons for
procrastination was because I was being lazy and did not want to pack, I think everyone
dislikes packing. The consequences of the procrastination of packing was I did not get to
pack all of my clothes so I had to go buy some and they were not what I wanted to wear on
our trip. Some skills have I learned this week that I could have used to change the outcome
of the situation is prioritize what I need to do and do them in a time frame. I am actually
struggling with time management as we speak. I do not have set hours at work, so I am
having to fit in schoolwork whenever I can. One thing I am finding that works for me
though, is whenever I get off of work, whatever time that may be, I eat, shower, and do
homework. Finding that work, family, school balance is possible, you just have to really
push yourself, and be determined. If you want something bad enough, you will do
everything in your power to make it happen. Making sacrifices, is something else that comes
along with time management, and balance. For instance, you might have to miss your
favourite show, skip a date, or a night out with your friends, so you can make time to work
on your goals. You might feel sad at the moment, not being able to do all the fun activities
that you use to do, but it will all be worth it in the end. So, making sacrifices is not all that
bad. To find balance can be tricky to separate school, work, and personal and sometimes we
fail at it. For me personally once I go home, I do not do any work. I do not have my work
email on my personal cell so for me it is easy for me to separate my work from personal.
Once I am home, I try to relax and do things around my home or go for a workout and then
I do my school work and for me it is mostly done in the evening on the weekdays. For me
the best time management I can for myself is to set deadlines for myself and to write down
all that I want to complete and on what day. Procrastination has hurt me in both my school
work in the past by not turning in assignments on time when I first started school and it
caused me to feel rushed when completing late assignments. For me I had to change my
ways, or I would never get anything completed. If I have chores around my house but I am
procrastinating in doing so then I try to get a quick work out to give me energy and then
begin doing what I need to do. For school I have be somewhere quiet with not a lot going on
and I am able to concentrate and get my work completed. I honestly am so busy with work,
school, and my kids that those are the three priorities in my life. I balance those things by
setting time to do those specific things. I work from 8am to 4:30pm Monday through Friday
so that is set throughout the week no matter what. After work I take my kids to any practice
or games they may have and then I use the time in between practices and after practice to do
school work. I may not always get done with my school work throughout the week so it is
amazing to have such flexible hours for school. I have a husband and three children so there
is no way I can remember everyone's schedule. My strategies are to stay organized write
everything down and make sure I create time to complete my priority commitments. I am
not a procrastinator at all. I will make time to complete the things that need done early
because I never know what might pop up. If I get put in at time crunch it is because
something popped up that I wasn't aware of. I write everything down so if this happens it
most likely because one of my children or husband sprung something on me that they just
forgot to tell me. I hate being in a time crunch and I try to avoid it at all cost or it gives me
bad anxiety. I have learned this week that organization is your best friend to prevent
procrastination and to stay on task. When you have a big project or a big commitment it is a
little less overwhelming to plan it out and break it into parts so that it is not to much at one
time. I have not decided if I like the old fashion written way or using my phone to add
commitments to my calendar, so I use both. I like to write things down, but I also like the
alerts and reminders that my phone provides. The best ways I've found to balance my
responsibilities is to organize it with explicit dates and times. If you try to keep things
undefined, with more general statements like "sometime soon" or "sometime this weekend",
then something is going to fall through those cracks. It's better to say, "I'll meet you for
lunch Saturday at 12" and "Yes, but I have to leave at 4". Then you throw that in a calendar,
and now you know your availability for any future plans. Once you build a habit of this it
become instinctual. I have found this works well for both work and friends, allowing me to
balance the two, and make time for my academic pursuits as well as leisure time.However,
organizing your time only does so much. Setting aside time to do academic work is
meaningless if you aren't clear on what you intend to do. A to-do list really helps with this.
I've been using an app called Todoist for a few years now, which lets me sync my to-do list
across both my work and personal phone, as well as other devices. If I don't have a clear list
of things to do, I can be easily distracted, especially if I'm trying to do something at
home.This is made worse by my ADD, of course. I remember way back in high school,
when I was young and unmedicated, I was a candidate to attend MIT. But despite the clear
deadline for the application, I procrastinated all the way to and past it. I procrastinated my
way out of one of the best schools in the nation. If only I was able to organize my life and
minimize my distractions the way I can today. I will find balance and prioritize my
academic, professional and personal responsibilities by separating my work from my at-
home responsibilities. I would have to set up my priorities by creating a list and rank them
from 1 and so forth. My schedule is what I go by at the moment to tell me when I have
meetings at my son school, projects at work to finish and school assignments. My time
management strategies would be getting what my son need out the way so that when I go to
start on a project for work there are no distractions and to do school work while everyone is
out of the house. I have the same routines every day this way it helps predictability and
organization for my schedule. My last course was a class that I would have to say I did a lot
of procrastination because it was a web design class and I could not figure out for the life of
me how to do the codes. The reason why I procrastinated a lot in that class is that I was
nowhere interested and when I set down to do the work it was dreadful. I love writing so I
couldn't understand why that was one of my classes and the consequence of my
procrastination in that class is that I received a lower grade than I ever have in all my four
years. I learned actually from last week to ask for help don't feel embarrassed don't feel
judged just ask for the help. As far as dealing with time I should have done the work earlier
than I did so that the professor could help me understand more. Finding balance while trying
to prioritize your academic, professional, and personal responsibilities can be a daunting task
to try to accomplish your goals. Academics are very demanding especially if you are a full
time students studying can take hours you have to be dedicated, determined and focused.
Finding balance in a professional setting is also time management because work can take up
all of your days and nights not getting to go home and see your family, friends, loved ones,
always turning down events is never fun but duty calls. Making time to have a personal life
is important to because everything doesn't always have to be serious live a little making time
for you and doing what you love to do on your time. Making a schedule to prioritize your
busy life is very important because you cannot live your life with no sense of direction
creating a schedule for you can make life ten times easier with structure. Some time
management strategies i use in everyday life i work a full-time job, i am a full time mother
so my time is taking up so when i come home from work i get my children situated as well
as my household i study for at least 2 hours then get sleep and repeat. At my workplace i
clean rooms so i try to get done with rooms within 20 minutes i usually have about 22 rooms
a day. It is successful for me because i have time to do anything i need to i wish i had more
time to study but i take what i can. I had 30 rooms one day and i had the television on and
also i had snacks so i stopped to watch television and eat it took longer than 20 minutes so i
was way behind and my other employees were getting done and i still had 20 plus rooms i
didn't get all of the rooms done my boss wasn't to happy i got a warning and i haven't done
it since to much time wasted.
