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The following guest post offers tips for parents looking to help their teens learn study and time management skills;
It’s About Time -Changing Behavior to Improve Student Study Habits
Students live in a world of endless opportunities to learn, socialize, volunteer, work, and travel among a long list of things. Good study skills and time management are key to learning how to balance priorities and opportunities in your life as a student.
With all these options and new found freedom, a student might become dissatisfied with how they are managing their time. Perhaps they have developed a bad habit of procrastinating or maybe they have too many activities on the go. Changing behaviors is a difficult task but following the recommendations below will help any student improve their time management skills.
A student can start by doing a self assessment. Do I skip class? Do I set goals for myself? Am I easily distracted from school work? Own up to your short comings and bad habits. Set goals you would like to achieve this semester, this year and in life. This will help you determine what is most important to you and help set your priorities.
Starting to plan. Plan each day. You can do this the night before or first thing in the morning. Set out what you would like to accomplish today and prioritize the items on your To Do list. The best tool is a day planner. Read More→
Guest article by Cathy Bates
The Simple Pleasures in Life Rediscovered
The recent downturn in the economy has created some very positive opportunities to live more simply. Families are eating at home more, finding creative ways to entertain themselves, and refocusing on the importance of relationships. Try some of these simple ideas:
• Get the family involved in planning and preparing meals. Each family member gets to pick a night, plan the menu, and help prepare the meal. You might even get an economics lesson in by setting a budget for the meal and letting them shop.
• Pack a picnic and head to your favorite hiking spot or to the beach.
• Plan a family game night. It can just be for your immediate family or invite another family.
• No vacation budget? Campout in the backyard or plan a mini-getaway.
• Do a service project together. You will create lasting memories together and the family will realize how blessed they are even in tough times.
• Need service a little closer to home? Do projects around the house together, like cleaning out the garage or organizing a room.
• Check your local newspaper, library, craft store, or home improvement store for free activities and events.
Cathy Bates is owner of Practical Solutions Professional Organizing and they can help you gain control of your surroundings and life, rediscovering the simple pleasures in life. Contact Practical Solutions for more information at 909.810.3719 or go online to www.psorganizing.com.
Guest Post by Beverly Coggins
We all have big projects we must accomplish at different points in our lives. It may be a normal part of your job or a fund-raiser for your child’s sports team or doing a home improvement project. Whatever the case, if you plan ahead, you can eliminate much of the stress that could accompany a big project. Here are a few tips:
1. Break down your project into categories and then to specific tasks in each category.
2. Estimate the time it will take do each task. Err on the side of over-estimating rather than under-estimating.
3. Add up the time it will take to complete your project so you will know how much time will need to be devoted to the project.
4. Set a deadline for the completion of your project.
5. If your project allows, delegate. Assign tasks with clear instructions and deadlines. Plan to follow-up periodically.
6. Working backwards, schedule the specific tasks/deadlines and follow-ups, allowing some extra wiggle room for unexpected delays. Plan to finish your project a couple of days ahead of schedule to reduce your stress level.
7. Know your peak energy times and schedule your tough jobs then, if possible.
8. Do big projects during big chunks of time and small ones during small scraps of time.
9. Do projects that require concentration at times when you won’t be interrupted at a place where there are few distractions. If you work in an office, consider going in during an evening or weekend when no one else is there. Make sure to take some time off during the week to compensate yourself.
10. Inform others of times when you do not want to be interrupted and when you will be available. Record this information on your voice mail. Give polite, but firm reminders when you are interrupted during your no-interruption times.
11. If necessary, go to a location away from your office or home where you are unlikely to be disturbed.
12. CELEBRATE the completion of your project!! If others are involved in your project, make sure to involve them in the celebration.
Beverly Coggins is an organizing expert, speaker and author of the 1-2-3…Get Organized series – books, workbooks, and ebooks written for the organizationally overwhelmed. Her blog provides tips on organizing time, the office, and home.
She is also a Myers-Briggs facilitator and conducts retreats, seminars, training, and coaching for businesses and individuals on the topics of team building, conflict resolution, vision/mission, career satisfaction, time management and organization.
MomAudience.com, her latest venture, is a weekly email showcasing free listings of businesses, blogs, products, and more that appeal to moms.
Guest Article by: By Liz Rapelje
I’m a terrible procrastinator. Without a specific time management strategy, I think I’d put life itself off, while I play some Solitaire on my computer. Unfortunately, procrastination is a very real issue for many people, and it’s often responsible for the majority of your lost productivity.
Do You Have a Procrastination Problem?
- Do you feel like you work, but never get anything done?
- Do you plan to clean, but it never gets finished?
- Do you start projects, but never see them through to completion?
If you answered yes to these questions, you probably have an issue with procrastination.
There is good news: You can overcome procrastination by implementing some time management techniques into your everyday life. Once you beat the procrastination monster, you’ll become much more successful in all areas of your life. You’ll also have more time for doing things you enjoy. One of the first steps to avoiding procrastination is to have a plan for your day. Whether you make a formal schedule, or just use a simple checklist, it’s easier to stay on task when you have something to refer to.
Sometimes people procrastinate because they’re feeling overwhelmed by a big task that seems impossible to complete. Instead of dealing with it, they simply avoid the task, finding other ways of spending their time. If this sounds familiar to you, you can break this cycle by breaking the task into smaller pieces. It won’t seem as unmanageable, and you’ll feel a greater sense of accomplishment as you finish each piece.
Set Deadlines
You can also avoid procrastination by creating task deadlines for yourself. By setting your deadline a little earlier than the real deadline (or creating one when there isn’t a specific date for completion) you create a sense of urgency for getting the task done. You also set yourself up for success, as you’re building in “wiggle room” for the unexpected.
Treat Yourself with Rewards
Give yourself a reward when you’re effective at meeting your goals and staying on schedule. Sometimes, a simple reward is all the motivation you need to stay focused on the task at hand. By combining all of these methods in your fight against procrastination, you’ve got a better chance of getting those things that are important to you, in both business and personal life, completed. You’ll feel less stressed out, and better about yourself over all. You’ll also have more time to enjoy life.
Procrastination is one of the worst culprits in poor time management – Click here for a free report entitled 5 Quick Time Management Techniques.
Valentine’s Day is only a week away. Let’s face it, our bedrooms look more like a disaster area than a place of rest and romance. Most of us hide our clutter in our bedroom because it’s the last place people will look. The truth is that this clutter keeps us from being able to relax and get a better night’s sleep. Here are six steps to creating an atmosphere for rest and maybe even a little romance in time by Valentine’s Day:
• Go around and collect all of the dirty laundry— including the sheets on the bed—and start a load in the washer. Keep doing laundry while you are working on the other steps. Make sure there is a hamper in the room, bathroom or closet and that laundry always goes there and never on the floor.
• Go around and collect any trash or recycling and take it out. Make sure you have a trash can in the bedroom and that when it gets full, it is emptied.
• Collect any items that don’t belong in the bedroom and put them in an “elsewhere” box. You can put them in the appropriate room when you are finished. You don’t want to get distracted by leaving the room.
• Fold and put away all clean laundry as soon as it comes out of the dryer. Folding it when it is still warm keeps you from having to iron as much. Also, you don’t have unfolded laundry around reminding you that your work is never done.
• Deal with the clutter in the room on every surface and the floors. Does it really need to go in the bedroom? If so, make sure it is organized. Craft projects should be organized and stored in a container in the closet or under the bed so that you are not reminded of unfinished projects when you are supposed to be sleeping. Display a few pictures and knickknacks that you enjoy, but not more than you want to dust or so much that it is not peaceful.
• Now that the floors and surfaces are clear, give the room a good cleaning and put the sheets back on the bed.
Enjoy a restful, romantic night. You deserve it!
Cathy Bates is owner of Practical Solutions Professional Organizing and a Golden Circle Member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO). They offer hands on organizing help for homes and offices. To find out more about how they can assist you, contact them at www.psorganizing.com or call (909)810-3719.
