When should I start studying for an exam? When should I start writing my essay? How much time will it take to read the chapter? I have too much to get done before the due date. College life requires making decisions about time. Making time decisions gets complicated especially because time is intangible.

You can’t save time. You can’t stretch time and you can’t stop time.

Managing time is a 21st century skill. It is a life skill that will benefit you in school and in the workplace. You might never really develop an internal chronometer but you can add some skills to your backpack ready to use whatever life throws at you. Like any skill, time management will improve with practice. Skills for time management need to be sharpened regularly. You will need to evaluate and update what you will need in different situations and for different tasks.

Many students who carry an ADHD diagnosis are “time blind.” In other words, you struggle to accurately predict how long a task like reading a chapter or answering the review questions will really take. You can’t tell how much time has elapsed while working on a specific task. You think one homework assignment will take 45 minutes and it really takes two and a half hours. So now you are behind in your other homework assignments all of which are due tomorrow!

You can learn how to use time. If you can learn these three essentials then you will make good decisions about how to use your time.

 #1 Get real about TIME

Keep a log of daily tasks. Like the morning routine, self-hygiene, your commute, the walk to class. Meal prep and eating.  Getting ready for bed. Use a stop watch and record how long these daily tasks really take. This log will help you develop the skill of accurately estimating how long tasks will take.

#2 Visualize TIME

Get a 24 hour weekly planner. The kind that has the 24 hours for each day and the seven days of the week. Now block out all the stuff that take up space in your day. Class. Eating. Sleeping. Employment. Exercise. Any weekly commitments like church, volunteer work, clubs. Note: block out time for attending class AND time for learning/studying outside of class time for every class you are enrolled in. The purpose of the 24 hour weekly planner is for you to SEE how much time regular life stuff takes.  With this visual of your time, you will make decisions regarding what to do with time that is NOT blocked off. Make some good choices!

#3 Find the best TIME to study

Keep another log of your energy level. At random times throughout the week, write down how much energy you have on a scale of 1-10, 1 being basically asleep and 10 being over the top hyper. What is your energy level? What is your focus level? Record your energy level at 9:00 a.m. then again at noon or 2:00 then again at 7:00 p.m. and again at 11:00 pm. Do this every day for a week. The purpose of this log is to make you aware of the cadence of your energy throughout the day. When are you most alert, awake and able to focus?  This is the best time to study your most difficult subjects. At the medium point of your day you can work on medium difficult work. At the lower point of your day’s energy you can work on things that don’t take too much thinking power, like making copies or organizing notes or doing the laundry.

Make good decisions about TIME

Like a researcher analyzing data, you want to make decisions about how to use your time based on data. Now you have four data points about your time:

1. How much time daily tasks take,
2. What takes up my time each day throughout the week,
3. When do I have unscheduled time, and
4. When am I most alert in the day.

You can make decisions based on this data. Look at when you are most alert. Do you have unscheduled time at that time? If so, then choose to study your most challenging class work at that time. If you are most alert during a scheduled class time, then be ready to absorb all the information presented during class hour. Preview all the information that will be presented during the lecture hour. Be ready to do most of your comprehending during class. Immediately after class summarize what you learned and get your homework done for that class. For the time you are at your medium level of alertness focus on work that has a medium level of difficulty. For the time you are at a lower level of alertness focus on work that is not demanding.

Take-away: Use your highest focus and energy times to address your most demanding mental work.

Oh, no! I am falling asleep but I haven’t finished my work! If you find that  you are slipping into your lower level of alertness of the day and you still haven’t finished your school work for the day, try these tips. Take frequent breaks. Take a rest. Eat something nutritious snack. Work standing up. Eat ice. Change locations. Exercise.

Oops, I am wide awake when I play.  If you find that you are using your most alert times in the day for mentally non-demanding things like socializing or social media or video games then reschedule your non-demanding activities to a time that matches a lower energy level.

You can learn to use time. Make good decisions based on the demand on your thinking and your levels of energy, focus and alertness. 

Want to learn more?

• Seeing Your Time. https://executivefunctioningsuccess.com/seeing-my-time/

• Blocking out your time demands using a weekly planner. https://ldadvisory.com/time_management_tool/

• Focus, energy and alertness levels throughout the day: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444180004578018294057070544