This document provides information and instructions for a group time management activity. Students are asked to map out their scheduled time for classes, work, meals, sleep, and other regular commitments on a weekly grid. They then identify remaining "manageable time" that could be used for schoolwork, leisure activities, or socializing. Students are encouraged to create a structured work plan for using their manageable time effectively. The document also provides tips for effective time management, such as avoiding procrastination, finding productive study times and locations, taking breaks, and prioritizing tasks. Students will complete the activity in small groups and send a summary to the instructor, along with individual pre- and post-activity time grids.

2. This week: Group activity (see next slide(s)) Conference! Schedule one ASAP. Hybrid stuff (see other PPT)

3. Announcements Grades should be up-to-date as of last week (at class time) If you can’t access Engrade, email me ASAP. If you have “m” anywhere in your grades, that means “missing” as in “you didn’t get this to me.” If I don’t have access to your Tumblr by Friday, you will receive zeroes for any missed entries. Likewise, if you have an “m” for project one and don’t talk to me by Friday at 5 p.m. you will receive a zero. Health update: I was doing much better, but I had a mild relapse this week. With any luck, I will be able to meet face-to-face next Monday (crossing fingers)

4. Keep in mind: Communication is CRITICAL with class happening almost entirely online. If you are confused, make sure you read/watched/listened to everything, then contact me. Don’t sit and wait. That’s a BAD strategy and will end up hurting you. Any problem you might have is something we can probably fix, but if you don’t talk to me, or your classmates, we can’t do anything to help.

5. Activity I’ve touched a few times, in small ways, on the idea of thinking through time management (both with you as a class and in more depth with some of you one-on-one). Now that we’re coming to the middle of the semester, it is even more critical that you spend your time wisely. So today’s activity is going to be a two-pronged group event: you’re going to do some basically solo work (though you can all work together on it) then you’re going to talk about it in your small group, then your recorder will send me a document talking about what you did.

6. First: Pick a group recorder before you go any further. Please pick someone who hasn’t recorded before (just to be fair– it’s not nice to make the same people take your notes and email them every week).  Now, as a group, read over the next few slides.

7. Let’s start with some info-graphics

8. This is how an adult spends his/her day

9. This is allegedly how you spend your day

10. Here is your study time sweet spot, if you’re average (10 am)

11. And here is some damning truth This one is a hyperlink. It was too large to fit on one slide. Click it and take a look. http://topcultured.com/college-student-time-use/

12. Here’s the part I want you to consider

14. Anything there stick out? (maybe use Facebook less?)

15. So, the activity I made a little Word doc you can use for this (it’s on the website, linked from the schedule page under “class activity” for week 7), but you can draw it, too, if you prefer. What you want to do is make a square for every hour of your day/week.

16. Now… Go through and plug in all the things you HAVE to do (classes, if you work, if you have set study groups or lab times, the hours when you can eat if you eat in the dining halls, any regular appointments, etc.) Next, plug in the things you would like to do that you know happen at a certain time (if you watch Community and 30 Rock, for example, on Thursday night, or if you usually go to dinner and a movie on Friday). Plug in your sleep hours.

17. Look at what is left That is what we’re going to call your “manageable time.” Think about how much work you have, and try to determine what you need to devote time to. Look at the week, and plug in any due dates you have, for example.

18. There are two ways …to look at the next part. Those remaining hours and chunks of hours are yours. So you can either: Do whatever you want with them Or2) Create a structured work plan that will let you do everything you need to do and some of what you want to do.

19. I am not here to judge You’re in college now. You’re a grown up. And I’m not going to treat you like you aren’t. So you are left to decide how to spend your time. I can, however, make some recommendations. I’m going to put them on black and white slides to be dramatic. 

20. Pro tip If you aren’t a good multi-tasker, don’t sit in front of the computer with no plan to do something specific. Hours lost web browsing and answering Facebook quizzes are literally hours lost. They don’t move you toward anything other than perhaps a nicer Farmville farm or larger Zombie Army.

21. Pro tip Figure out your biorhythm. Most people are actually more mentally active (and more physically active) at specific times of day. Figure out your optimal times to work and maximize them.

22. Pro tip Find “lost time” and find it.Do you walk to class? How can you use that walking time to do work (audio on an iPod?). Do you ride the bus? Do you get to class early? These are all moments you can make use of.

23. Pro tip Be “realistic.”Don’t think that you can do all the work for a 4 credit hour class in one hour. That’s not realistic. The classic standard is that you need 2-3 hours of homework time per credit hour (though I doubt you need 12 hours to do the work for this class– plus for us it would be 16, because you have to account for the hours of class time, too).

24. Pro tip Don’t pretend you can wait. DON’T PROCRASTINATE!Divide your work up over the week, or you will find yourself frazzled and overworked on the weekend (which is when you probably most want to be social).

25. Pro tip Work hard, but don’t deny yourself rest/play.Some of you, I’m sure, don’t get 8 hours of sleep a night, but make sure you get close. When you’re exhausted, you are less capable (which means your quality of work can drop such that the extra quantity doesn’t break even)

26. Pro tip The play side: If you want to be highly effective, you have to be careful about how you use your leisure time. That said, make sure you give yourself breaks or you will burn out. Stop and watch a TV show, or go see someone across the hallway, or go play a round of frisbee golf.

27. Pro tip Know what you’re doing. This is a big one for current students. If you are sitting at a computer, you are NOT automatically working. Remember that. There are programs that can block Facebook and the like, but you’ll just sit and wish it wasn’t blocking you. Learn to avoid time sinks.

28. Pro tip Pick the right places for the right things.A schedule only helps if you have what you need and are in a place that is good for what you’re doing. So try to have that planned ahead.

29. Pro tip If you fall behind– don’t freak out! If you get down on yourself, or you freak out, you end up losing more time to your worrying. So if you fall out of schedule, figure out when you can pick up what you missed, but don’t let it eat at you. We all make mistakes.

30. Pro tip Set priorities.This will help you when time is tight. Figure out what is most important, then next, then next, on down to the least important thing. When a day is tight, start at the bottom and remove activities.

31. Pro tip Keep calm. If you do fall behind, don’t freak out or beat yourself up. Those activities just take away more time. If you make a mistake, adjust quickly and realize that it’s a process, learning to manage your time.

32. Pro tip And if you’re on Facebook more than half-an-hour a day, ask yourself why.If it’s valuable to you, by all means, use that time to socialize, but if you’re just randomly saying and clicking things, remember that the time you spend on Facebook is reading and writing, and there’s school work that calls for both those skills. Don’t use all your read/write time posting updates. 

33. When you finish… I want you to do two things. Your recorder should send me a paragraph or two summary of what you, as a group, learned from looking at your schedules. Individually, I’d like you to fill out a schedule grid for one day last week (as best you remember) then a structured one for the same day. Email those to me. We’ll do a follow-up activity with them next week.

34. Conferences We will be conferencing again this week.I have set Tungle hours of availability for Tues, Weds, Thurs and Fri. Pick a time that will work for you. You will need to meet me on AIM unless you make plans with me to use something else BEFORE you pick a time. Make sure you can connect to AIM before you schedule a conference. And make sure to have that sheet of questions/comments that you prepped last week on hand when we start.

35. Week 7 continues on the Week 7 Hybrid PowerPoint!