Best time management/organization tips?

[Danger_Zone]

I think I've always been kind of poor at managing my time. During undergrad, it seems as though it took me much longer to complete tasks than others. I feel as though I could have done much better, and had much more free time, if I had learned how to better manage my time (and also procrastinate less, I suppose). I'm hoping to not make the same mistake during grad school. Does anybody have advice or tips on how they best manage their time efficiently? Or perhaps any other resources or books on the subject, especially if it pertains to school?

I know this is a very general question, but good time management and organization seems especially important in grad school since it is much less structured. I just want to make sure I get the most out of school while also making sure that I have some down time for hobbies and such. I'm very hard working but I can't see myself surviving without a decent amount of free time!

Edited June 6, 2016 by Danger_Zone

[spectastic]

I wear a watch on my wrist, and I look at it a lot.

[travelgirl125]

The thing that has helped the most for me is having a good planner.  The one I have is broken down by 15-minute increments from 8:00am-6:00pm.  It helps me block out my day and see where I have little pockets of time to do things.  I got it at Staples for $30, if I remember correctly.

I also have a tough time staying off of my phone, but I've heard of apps you can download which will shut off certain apps (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) after you've been on them for a set period of time.  I will probably be trying those once the fall comes around! 

Hope that helps!

[knp]

This is going to be different for everybody—e.g., I found all the "block unproductive websites" apps a fun technical challenge to try to get around, not a limit to respect, wasting even more of my time!—and I expect that I'll need to change up a lot of my own strategies next fall, but my last big revelation was that I needed to take MORE breaks. Giving myself more defined-limit, non-screen-time-based breaks lets my brain recharge more in 10 minutes than it would in two hours puttering around on the internet feeling guilty about what I SHOULD be doing. If you get lost doing it, that's no good, but if I go for a short walk, or make myself a cup of coffee and just sit there thinking for as long as I drink it, or do the latest crossword puzzle, I found that I could come back refreshed. Another one I've discovered, last time I had a dresser the right height to use as a reading-only standing desk with my laptop, was that I got a lot more reading done that way because I could dance around to music while reading. That was a surprise, because I find music very annoying if I'm trying to read while sitting down.

[Focus]

As an undergrad, I use a planner religiously and have a decent sense of how long certain tasks will take me (usually by estimating and multiplying by a factor of 2). 

However, the best way to be productive is to use all the little "unusable" blocks of time to be productive or self-organize. I keep Evernote on my phone and read papers or notes when waiting at the store, for the bus, or when using the restroom instead of playing a mindless game or checking social media. I also use ColdTurkey to block me from all distracting sites on my laptop for HUGE blocks of time. I find that once I get the ball rolling on my projects the rest goes over relatively smoothly. I also periodically turn off my phone and separate from the ability to quickly take a peek and check up on things. 

There's often times when I get antsy and feel like I can't be productive, but a lap around the building or a couple of quick stretches and a drink of water usually calm me down enough to settle back into work for the rest of the afternoon.

For grad school, I have no intention of spending 12 hours a day on the campus or in lab with only 6 of it being truly productive. I much prefer to "do my time" and get my work done so I can go home. I'm hoping to spend about 10 hours a day with about 90% efficiency on my work, but we'll see how that works out.

[Cheshire_Cat]

Here is a book written by a professor on how to manage your time.  I took his class on time management in undergrad and there were a couple of the concepts in it which totally changed my paradigm on how to manage my time.

https://www.amazon.com/Time-Basics-Jim-Muncy-ebook/dp/B00QSLCPM6

[Danger_Zone]

7 hours ago, travelgirl125 said:

The thing that has helped the most for me is having a good planner.  The one I have is broken down by 15-minute increments from 8:00am-6:00pm.  It helps me block out my day and see where I have little pockets of time to do things.  I got it at Staples for $30, if I remember correctly.

I also have a tough time staying off of my phone, but I've heard of apps you can download which will shut off certain apps (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) after you've been on them for a set period of time.  I will probably be trying those once the fall comes around! 

Hope that helps!

I'm not even on any social media and still manage to distract myself all the time. I can't imagine how I'd be if I had a Facebook or Twitter account! I'll definitely pick up a good planner, though.

6 hours ago, Cheshire_Cat said:

Here is a book written by a professor on how to manage your time.  I took his class on time management in undergrad and there were a couple of the concepts in it which totally changed my paradigm on how to manage my time.

https://www.amazon.com/Time-Basics-Jim-Muncy-ebook/dp/B00QSLCPM6

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll definitely check that book out. I've looked a bit into books on the subject but there's just so much out there.

 

6 hours ago, Focus said:

As an undergrad, I use a planner religiously and have a decent sense of how long certain tasks will take me (usually by estimating and multiplying by a factor of 2). 

However, the best way to be productive is to use all the little "unusable" blocks of time to be productive or self-organize. I keep Evernote on my phone and read papers or notes when waiting at the store, for the bus, or when using the restroom instead of playing a mindless game or checking social media. I also use ColdTurkey to block me from all distracting sites on my laptop for HUGE blocks of time. I find that once I get the ball rolling on my projects the rest goes over relatively smoothly. I also periodically turn off my phone and separate from the ability to quickly take a peek and check up on things. 

There's often times when I get antsy and feel like I can't be productive, but a lap around the building or a couple of quick stretches and a drink of water usually calm me down enough to settle back into work for the rest of the afternoon.

For grad school, I have no intention of spending 12 hours a day on the campus or in lab with only 6 of it being truly productive. I much prefer to "do my time" and get my work done so I can go home. I'm hoping to spend about 10 hours a day with about 90% efficiency on my work, but we'll see how that works out.

One of my problems is that I always greatly underestimate how long something is going to take me, so multiplying estimations by 2 sounds like a great idea. I've given myself time periods to finish certain tasks, but would be too slow and have one task spill over into the next task's time frame, and so on, which would end up making me feel kind of discouraged. I've spent too much time being somewhat productive, when I could be spending much less time being a lot more efficient.

[AP]

Are you familiar with "the 7 habits of Highly effective people" by Steven Covey? It's a book, but I got to know it as a course in a school I worked. It changed my way of using my time. A good tip from this book is the quadrant (if you google the name of the book and "quadrant" you'll see it). It's a very well-known table (I cannot post it because I didn't find with the proper rights to redistribute). 

It has two columns: Urgent and Not Urgent, and two rows: Important and Not Important. 

Not Urgent + Not Important = trivia, some mail, phone calls, time-wasters, pleasant activities, Facebook, etc.

Urgent + Not Important = the worst (for me). Interruptions, pressing matters, people that come with their urgent stuff but it is not urgent for you (eg, when they are missing a deadline), etc.

Urgent + Important = Crises, Deadlines, Pressing problems, firefighting. This is our last weeks writing the dissertation. You want to keep these to a minimum.

Not Urgent + Important = Prevention, production, relationship building, planning, creation and recreation, opportunities. You want to identify these priorities first and plan accordingly. Eg: I wanted to apply for grant X. Due date on day Y and I had to be ABD by day Z. There were two things I had to plan: the due date (a week after my comps) and being ABD on time (a month or so earlier than my cohort). So I wrote the grant application over the summer, had it edited and done by the time I started my comps (late Fall), finished comps and submitted grant with minor revisions, wrote my prospectus and defended two days before I needed to be ABD (just in case). I didn't get the grant but I definitely show myself how a good planner I can be if identify my priorities. 

 

Well, it's just ONE way, I hope it helps!

AP

 

[sjoh197]

I know its not exactly what you asked, but I really found this planner set-up to be the most useful and productive... with the monthly calendar first, followed by the weeks on 2 page spreads, with each day having plenty of lines. Makes it easier to glance the long-term, but really organize the short term. 

http://www.amazon.com/GLANCE-Academic-Monthly-Planner-Appointment/dp/B01BFKXGQS?ie=UTF8&keywords=at a glance academic planner 2016-2017&qid=1465311192&ref_=sr_1_7&s=office-products&sr=1-7

There are lots of other people who make them too. 

[Apogeee]

On 6/6/2016 at 0:31 AM, Danger_Zone said:

I know this is a very general question, but good time management and organization seems especially important in grad school since it is much less structured. I just want to make sure I get the most out of school while also making sure that I have some down time for hobbies and such. I'm very hard working but I can't see myself surviving without a decent amount of free time!

A decent amount of free time and grad school seem to me to be mutually exclusive. Maybe it's just different in your discipline. But I have a great deal of outside reading to do, and although I am a fast reader, I feel like it's hard to keep up with all of that in order to become an expert in my field. 

Still, as to how to manage tasks and avoid procrastination, I got rid of my tv set. A friend of mine got rid of social media, but I haven't taken that plunge yet. Give yourself off one hour of free time a day, every day. No saving up. Take the time every day to do something that recharges you Allow youself one day off a month (I like weekend days for this) for special occasions and really recharging. Take off one week per semester to visit family and friends. I also take some time to write every day, either about books and articles I have read in my field, or my new writing in my field. In terms of procrastination, it's the starting that gets me. So I make myself start. I also spend more time in the office and less time at home, as I am more likely to work in the office.

I begin projects the day they are assigned, and work on them a little at a time. Again, it's all about overcoming the inertia, for me.

Good luck.

[Danger_Zone]

1 hour ago, Agrippina said:

A decent amount of free time and grad school seem to me to be mutually exclusive. Maybe it's just different in your discipline. But I have a great deal of outside reading to do, and although I am a fast reader, I feel like it's hard to keep up with all of that in order to become an expert in my field. 

Still, as to how to manage tasks and avoid procrastination, I got rid of my tv set. A friend of mine got rid of social media, but I haven't taken that plunge yet. Give yourself off one hour of free time a day, every day. No saving up. Take the time every day to do something that recharges you Allow youself one day off a month (I like weekend days for this) for special occasions and really recharging. Take off one week per semester to visit family and friends. I also take some time to write every day, either about books and articles I have read in my field, or my new writing in my field. In terms of procrastination, it's the starting that gets me. So I make myself start. I also spend more time in the office and less time at home, as I am more likely to work in the office.

I begin projects the day they are assigned, and work on them a little at a time. Again, it's all about overcoming the inertia, for me.

Good luck.

I don't mean anything crazy, just some time at the end of the day to spend with my boyfriend or something and forget about school. Obviously my work is important to me, but I'm not going to sacrifice people I care about for it, so I want to make sure I don't completely isolate myself or neglect people. Things might change, but I plan on spending what time I can at school working, because I feel like it would be much easier to find distractions at home.

Hopefully I can stop with procrastinating. I used to start projects the day they were assigned as well. I'm usually quite motivated to start the very beginning of a project, but after that my motivation kind of drops off. I'm hoping since I get to focus more on what I actually find interesting than I won't have as much of a problem with motivation.

Thanks for the advice!

[Danger_Zone]

6 hours ago, sjoh197 said:

I know its not exactly what you asked, but I really found this planner set-up to be the most useful and productive... with the monthly calendar first, followed by the weeks on 2 page spreads, with each day having plenty of lines. Makes it easier to glance the long-term, but really organize the short term. 

http://www.amazon.com/GLANCE-Academic-Monthly-Planner-Appointment/dp/B01BFKXGQS?ie=UTF8&keywords=at a glance academic planner 2016-2017&qid=1465311192&ref_=sr_1_7&s=office-products&sr=1-7

There are lots of other people who make them too. 

Nah that's okay, planners are great too! That sounds like a good one, thanks.

[Sigaba]

On 6/5/2016 at 9:31 PM, Danger_Zone said:

Does anybody have advice or tips on how they best manage their time efficiently?

• Don't bench mark yourself against your perception of your classmates' progress or their skills.
  • Do not measure yourself based upon preconceived notions of how much time it should take you to perform a task.
• If you're the type to wait until the last moment, consider the utility of embracing that trait.
  • Do not flog yourself with the "I should be doing something else" cat of nine tails.
• Develop an understanding of how long it takes you to perform tasks and of when you're most efficient.
  • Use your windows of greatest efficiency to tackle the more difficult tasks.
• Develop a respect for your strengths as a historian and draw confidence from those strengths.
  • Use that store of confidence to improve skills that aren't where you would like.
• Study the lives of those historians who inspire you. 
  • Chances are, their memories/autobiographies/letters will provide useful insights on how to approach the work.

 

[maelia8]

Methods I use to improve my time management:

1) use the Pomodoro method to work in short blocks and religiously take breaks so that I don't feel burned out.

2) use Google calendar religiously to plan out my days, with recurring meetings and events, and make the calendar shareable among all of my friends/coworkers so that they can use it to see when I'm free and we can schedule time to meet.

3) use Habitica (habit checklist game) to motivate me to get things done on time.

4) make a checklist of my "free time activities" for a given day/study period, with specific limited time slots for each (i.e. '30 minutes tv,' '15 minutes fun reading,' etc.).

[inertialdummy]

My time management style evolves around the work load really. After years of trying to keep journals and structured monthly plans I finally gave up and decided to focus on the day.

First things first, I create a weekly calendar of the academic year to put all the important deadlines: holidays, final dates etc. This gives me some perspective on which weeks I'll be pretty busy (that I may need to spare my sunday for work too) and when I'll have some free time.

After this I plan my current day. By planning I mean I set daily goals ( read paper A, finish 3 chapters, solve at lest 20 examples so on), and while doing so I keep the deadlines in that weekly calendar in my mind.  My prioritizing scheme depends on my panic level really. If I feel too anxious, I go with urgent tasks (such as studying for an exam), otherwise I fell comfortable enough and I go with tough tasks (learning new stuff, solving extra examples). I use 50/50 app on my iPhone (it is free) to time my studies and breaks since having a wristwatch gives me anxiety too.

After all this planning all I need to do is just stick with it.
Good luck with your studies!

Edited July 6, 2016 by inertialdummy
Grammar

[Quickmick]

I have a wife and a two year old, so time management is particularly important. I use two things. One is similar to @Focus' suggestion which I used in the professional world. There they called it timeblocking--which is basically planning your day--the trick is that there are no allowed interruptions. For example if 2-4 is blocked for reading and the phone rings--no answering it.. calls get returned at 5-6 (or whatever). This seems to help out as my blocked time doesn't get broken up by a bunch of small breaks.

The other thing I have found effective is to plan tomorrow today. Last thing I do before I leave my desk is to look at what I want to get done tomorrow and have a plan for it today. If I don't, I will fiddle around, check the news, eat a burrito, and next thing I know it is 10 o'clock.

If putting down the phone is difficult, I think some people have looked at the effects of setting the screen to black and white and the decrease in phone use is noticeable (who wants to look at black and white, right?).

Simple things, but they have worked pretty well.