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TIME MANAGEMENT 2

Study groups, concentration,

study breaks, rewards

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The Study Group

How many times have you wondered what the teacher said or what the book meant by a particular comment or paragraph?

Do you ask others what their interpretation is?

While this may not be a common experience now, it can be at the college level.

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The Study Group

Here are several suggestions that you can use to help form a study group If you can, study with someone who is

just a little better in the subject that yourself

if your study partner is too good, you won’t be helped and your partner might feel taken advantage of

if you are of the same ability, you aren’t improving the quality of your study time

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Study Group Techniques

One of the common techniques is to divide up the study questions ahead of time. Each person should have a general understanding of all the questions and an in-depth understanding of the questions they were given or selected. Each person should thoroughly learn his/her selection before the study group gets together.

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The Study Group

When the study group meets, each personshould present his/her answers in-depth.

Some study groups have typed copies of the answers available for each member of the group.

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Concentration Tips

How long can you read hard material before losing concentration? need to learn this about yourself

Concentration time will vary as you become a better student as the pressures of your daily life

change

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Concentration Tips

Perhaps there are not a lot of time conflicts in your studies now. However, there will be soon.

By practicing time management now, conflicts will not overwhelm you later.

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Time Management In some cases,

you may need to seek outside help parent friend tutor a different text

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Concentration Tips

You have to learn the material that is covered by the course description or risk being behind next year

Every core subject you now take is a building block for later subjects

You need to approach them all as important

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Break Time What if you can’t concentrate? Then

it is probably time to take a break a working schedule will include timed

breaks During the first couple of weeks

working with your time management plan, you will need to determine how long you can concentrate

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Break TimeThe best way to do this is to keep a journal of your study time. Track the subject, the assignment, and the level of difficulty.

Write down your starting time and the time your concentration begins to drift.

For large tasks, write down how long your break was, especially if you were unable to restart the task in the scheduled study period.

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Break Time

Sooner or later, you will probably experience a task that is either too hard or boring. Both of these problems need to be overcome. Tasks that seem boring may make ideal warm ups for your hard tasks.

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Break Time

But what if the thought “I can’t do this” won’t go away. How do you tackle a hard task?

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Break Time This is actually a break in

concentration. You can break the task into smaller

parts determine if there is

missing information Regardless, set aside the

assignment and take a break

move to another assignment

get up and walk around talk to someone else

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Break Time When you return, try to think of a

different approach to the assignment for a reading assignment

start at a different place from where your concentration drifted

for a packet go to a different part and restart there

for a writing assignment go to a different part of your outline and write

those paragraphs then cut and paste all paragraphs together according to your outline

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The Reward

Everyone likes to be rewarded a job well done. What about when you are the only one who knows or appreciates that the task you scheduled is done? Well, that means you have to reward yourself!

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The Reward

This works in two ways to help us with our studying. First, by rewarding ourselves we feel better. Second, it gives us incentive to get the job done so we can have the reward.

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The Reward It is important to set aside rewards until the task

is done When doing difficult assignments, break the work

up into a series or tasks which can each be rewarded

simple rewards a phone call to a friend an ice cream cone

bigger rewards a movie a new outfit

Involve parents or others for the largest rewards, but you should schedule your own rewards as well

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The Calendar

An example of a time management calendar is included in this manual.

Each of you will have a different method and will vary the actual times to your own strengths and needs.

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The Calendar

One of the first rules of a good time management calendar is to have it with you. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to keep it in your three-ring binder.

 

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The Calendar Schedule everything on one calendar

birthdays holidays important assignments

For personal items use the same calendar with a code for the event or task so only you will know what it is for example: you could use “mt” to represent

a mall trip or “sd” to mean a special date

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The Calendar

It is important to create a calendar that reflects all of your time constraints. As your scheduling ability increases, you should notice a freeing up of time and a lack of last minute rushing or pressure.

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