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Time management is the process of planning and organizing the time you spend on different tasks and activities, so that you can be productive, efficient and make the most of your day.
Time management is relevant to everyone. As a student, having a strong collection of organizational tools and strategies is essential to academic success. Keeping track of your time, tasks and deadlines reduces stress and can lead to better grades.
Check out the tools and tips in this guide for ideas on how to effectively organize and manage your time.
Time management can be broken down into three main steps:
Planning involves developing your goals, identifying tasks, prioritizing and scheduling.
Acting means doing what you planned, overcoming procrastination and recording your progress.
Evaluating means reflecting on your system - did it work or not?
Before you can make a plan, you need to set your goals. Goals help us to decide what's important and what we want to accomplish. Having a goal is a great way to keep motivated and hold yourself accountable.
Goals can be divided into two categories:
Develop your long-term goals first and then start breaking them down into short-term goals. Once you've broken your short-term goals up into smaller and smaller steps, this can be used as a "To-Do" list!
When setting goals, it can be helpful to follow some guidelines that will make your goal easier to define and achieve. One set of guidelines for goal-setting is the SMART model. Try setting a few long-term and short-term goals using these elements.
Once you've set your goals and defined your tasks, the next step is to prioritize. Prioritization is one of the most important pieces in effective time management because it helps us to use our time wisely and productively.
Here's a little secret - most of us find prioritization challenging. Why is that? It's because our attention naturally goes to time-sensitive tasks, even if they aren't the most important. One approach to improving prioritization is to ask yourself, "How urgent is this task?" and "How important is this task?"
This "urgent-important" approach to prioritization is outlined in a tool known as the Eisenhower Matrix. 
Once your tasks are categorized in one of the four quadrants, consider assigning a color or symbol to each category to help keep tasks straight.
Check out the links below to learn more about prioritization and the Eisenhower Matrix.
Along with defining tasks and prioritizing, some people also use schedules and calendars as a way to visualize and track their time. These tools are great for helping us to be prepared and keep motivated to complete our tasks. There are lots of different types of calendars and schedules, but two main formats are:
These two calendar types work together to give you both the big picture and small picture of your time. Many students create and use both types to stay organized and on track.
| Planning tool | How to create it | Benefits and uses |
| Semester/long-term calendar |
Add all assignments, exams and project deadlines - everything that counts for marks. Consider including the weight of the assessment too (how much it's worth), as this can help you decide how important an assessment is and how much time to spend on it. You can also add important personal dates, such as a weekend away or an event. This is important information for planning! |
Improved awareness of important dates and deadlines. Ability to overcome procrastination. Better control over time and ability to plan ahead. |
| Weekly/daily schedule |
Start by adding your fixed commitments first - things that aren't flexible. Examples would be your classes, work shifts or volunteer commitments. From there, add the rest of your tasks from highest to lowest priority. Make sure not to overload yourself with too many high priority tasks in one day, and always overestimate your time per task - it's okay if you don't get it exactly right! |
Ability to balance higher and lower priority tasks. Greater accountability to help with overcoming procrastination. Reduced stress. |
There are lots of great tools for planning and scheduling your time. When choosing which tool is best for you, it's helpful to first decide if you'd like a digital or physical planner. There are benefits to both! Some people prefer a physical planner because they can see everything in one spot and it's easy to post for quick reference. Others prefer digital planners because they're accessible anywhere and they can set reminders and recurring tasks.
Some examples of great digital calendar tools include Google calendar, Apple calendar and Microsoft Outlook calendar (all current SAIT students have free access to MS Outlook through their Office 365 accounts). The best approach is to decide on a tool and try it out. It's okay to adjust or switch it up later. Remember, the best tool is the one you will use.
Check out the links and templates below to get started on your own calendars and planners.
Once you've made a plan, the next step is to act on it. This means following your plan and seeing how it goes. You might have the best plan ever, but if you don't act on it, there's no impact!
To help with following your plan, it's important to have solid strategies for overcoming procrastination. Procrastination is the habit of avoiding or delaying an important task, even though there might be negative consequences for it. Procrastinating can cause you to miss important deadlines, or do things at the last minute. Most of us procrastinate sometimes, while some people would even consider themselves to be chronic procrastinators. As a student, avoiding important tasks such as homework assignments, studying for exams, or working on a project, can have major impacts to your grades and overall well-being.
The good news is that lots of great strategies exist to help fight procrastination and get your tasks done. Here are a few tips to get you started:
Check out the links below for more tips and information on overcoming procrastination.
Once you've created your plan and followed it (to the best you can), the final step in our process is to evaluate your progress. How did the plan go? Did you stick with it? Were there any trouble points which set you off track?
If you're having trouble sticking to your plan, the first step is to identify possible reasons why the plan didn't work out. Here are some common ones:
Once you've identified possible sticking points in your plan, you can take steps to adjust next time! Did you under-estimate time? Over-estimate next time. Did you forget to prioritize? Review your to do list and categorize your tasks. Remember, there's always help if you need it. Use the tips and strategies covered in this module, get some advice from a friend or classmate, or meet with a SAIT Learning Strategist for support.
Good time management has many benefits. It helps increase productivity, reduces overwhelm, and helps us reach our goals. Even so, managing time effectively takes practice - it's okay if things don't always go as planned. Remember to start small, evaluate, adjust and, most importantly, stick with it!
