Delaney - Assignment 20

How to: manage your time.

Recently (and by recently I mean high school in general), I’ve been trying to learn more about myself. I have always thought of myself as responsible and reliable (at least when it comes to school work). But I had never connected it to my work ethic and more importantly - how I manage my time.

Time management has never been a real problem for me. In fact, I’ve gotten quite good at it over the years. Even in elementary school when my peers were goofing off and the teachers got off on a tangent, I would do homework. Up until about my sophomore year of high school, I rarely had to do homework at home. Unless it was an artsy project or something that I physically could only do at home, every assignment was completed at school. Anyways, I figured I’d help some of you who might be struggling with balancing homework and extracurriculars. 

How to manage your time effectively: 

1. First make a list of everything you need to get done.
2. Prioritize that list based on when it needs to be completed and how important it is to you.
3. Go through your schedule and write down exactly how much down time you have - whether it be 30 minutes free after school but before an activity or just time you’re at home.
4. Compare your to-do list and your down time and work out when you will work on each item.
5. If you find yourself with unexpected down time (say you have a substitute in class with no busy work to do), work on your to-do list. 

Following these steps not only organizes my life but I also get all my homework done, get good grades, participate in about 15 choirs, participate in the theater department, and get a solid 8 to 9 hours of sleep each night. If I couldn’t manage my time, I’d be in serious trouble.