1. Hidden Slide for Instructor
Topic
Slides
Time Estimate
(Minutes)
Notes/Suggestions
Lesson 1
Introduction 3 5
See discussion questions.
Case Study Activity 4
Give out the Time Management Case Study Handout. Refer to the speaker’s notes on the slides and your copy of the case study in the Lesson Plan.
Time Management Strategies
5 - 6
Get in the habit of writing things down – don’t try to keep track in your head. Four things to write down.
Put Semester Deadlines in Your Planner 7
Suggested as an in-class activity, but can also be assigned as homework.
Total Lesson 1 60
Speaker’s notes offer suggested points – use or adapt as you wish.

2. Hidden Slide for Instructor continued
Topic
Slides
Time Estimate
(Minutes)
Notes/Suggestions
Lesson 2
Identify Your Priorities 8
5 - 10
Page 2 of Time Management Handout
Set Up a Weekly Schedule
9 - 11
10 – 15
Pages 3 – 5 of Time Management Handout. Allow about for in-class discussion; give students homework to prepare a weekly schedule.
Use a Weekly To-Do List 10
Ten-minute discussion in class; homework to prepare a to-do list
Total
Lesson 3
Compare Notes – Weekly Schedules/To-Do Lists 15
Pair – share – discuss, than ask for comments from the full group.
Wrap-Up 16
Refer to last page of Time Management Handout . 20

3. Time Management Are you pressed for time?
Do you know someone who seems to get a lot done?
Time management is an extremely important skill for college, especially when you’re not only in school but working, and other dealing with other commitments. Let’s talk about that, and talk about some practical ways to manage time. And please keep in mind that you’re always welcome to come talk to me if you’re dealing with issues with your schedule.
Are you pressed for time? What kinds of challenges are you facing?
Discuss. Students are not only dealing with challenging college-level classes, but often have schedules anyone would find difficult. In college, there’s also less structure—it’s up to you to figure out how to handle it all.
CLICK – second question will appear.
Do you know someone who seems to get an amazing amount of stuff done?
It’s likely they are making deliberate choices and using some time management strategies. Time management isn’t magic—it’s a skill—and it may be a skill that you haven’t been called on to develop at the level that’s now needed.
CLICK
Would you say you have a time management system in place?
If you do, great. I’ll be asking you to tell us what works for you. If you don’t, I’m going to invite you to try out some tried-and-true methods and see how they work for you. Each of us is unique, and we all need to figure out the time management systems that work for us. I hope you take what we talk about and adapt it for your life.
Do you have a time management system in place?
6.1.16

4. Case Study Work with a small group (count off 1-4).
Read the case study handout, and discuss your answers to questions.
Pick someone in your group to take notes and tell the class what your group came up with.
Take about 7 minutes.
Hand out the Time Management Case Study Handout. Review the instructions on the slide, before students get into small groups. (You have a copy of the case study in your Time Management Lesson Plan.)
Then divide into groups (suggesting groups of 4). Give the groups about 7 minutes to read the case study and discuss their questions. Circulate and be available for questions. Tell people when they have about a minute left.
Then call on groups to get their answers. To keep the discussion moving, you can ask one group to answer question #1, then ask if another group or groups had any different answers. Then call on another group for question #2, and so on.
You may want to write notes on a white board as students report out.
After the discussion, have students return to their seats.
Transition to time management strategies.

5. Time Management Strategies
Write down what you need to do.
One key to time management is to get in the habit of writing down what you need to do. Don’t try to keep track of everything in your head.
If it’s in your head, it’s in the wrong place.
When you know you need to do something, but you haven’t written it down or figured out when you’ll do it, your brain will keep thinking about it. Your brain wants closure. Until you get closure—by completing the task or scheduling a time to complete it—you’re likely to feel a little distracted.
If you many unfinished tasks buzzing around in your head, you’re likely to feel anxious and overwhelmed.
Writing down what you need to do helps you see what you’re really dealing with. It helps you make sure you don’t forget things. And it helps you feel calmer and more in control.
I’m going to suggest that you write down four kinds of things. I’d like you to try these out and see what works for you. (Next slide)
If it’s in your head, it’s in the wrong place.

6. Four Things to Write Down
Get more done
with less stress
Use a weekly to-do list
Set up a weekly schedule
Identify your priorities
Here are four things to write down. This may sound like a lot, but once you get this set up, all you need to do is update your weekly schedule and to-do list.
At the start of the semester, put semester deadlines and key dates into your planner – tests, breaks, assignments due, and so on. That’s your roadmap.
Why not just leave that information in the syllabus? If you have deadlines in your own planner, you’re much more likely to keep track of the deadlines, and you can figure out how to make school commitments work with other stuff you have going on.
Second, identify your priorities. What’s important to you, that you want to make sure you protect time for? Even if you’re really under pressure, you have to work along with school, you do need some time to rest and have some fun or exercise. If you identify your priorities, you’ll be better able to build them in. You’ll be less likely to do what Steven did and drift into hanging out with friends.
Third, what’s a realistic weekly schedule? How much study time should you be planning on? What else is going to take your time? A good rule of thumb is to plan on taking two hours of studying for each unit of class. Once you set up a weekly schedule, you can adjust it week to week.
Fourth, use one master weekly to-do list—don’t try to keep track of what you need to do in your head or have notes scattered on different pieces of paper.
All of this points to the goal of getting more done with less stress. Let’s look at how this can work.
Put semester deadlines and key dates into your planner

7. Put Semester Deadlines in Your Planner
Final
Assignments
Mid-Terms
Go through the syllabus for this class.
In your Planner, make notes of all key dates—assignments, exams, breaks, etc. Enter reminders to study for each test at least a week before.
Recommended:
Do this for all classes.
The semester calendar gives you a roadmap for the semester. It’s a fair amount of work to get this done, but you only have to do it once.
Tell students whether you want them to enter key dates into their planner in class (preferred, because this gives them a way to ask questions and easily compare notes as they’re working) or as a homework assignment. If you do this as a homework assignment, follow up in the next class and have students “pair and share” to compare planners with another student.]
If they do this in class, allow about 20 minutes.
You can have students work in pairs or threes.

8. Identify your priorities
Each week, you have a finite amount of time.
What are the things that are most important to you, that you want to make sure you make time for?
Take about minutes and write your thoughts.
Classes & studying AND
Things like exercise, rest, eating well, social time, relaxing, family, work, other?
Final
Assignments
Mid-Terms
You may want to refer back to Slide 5 and tell students you’ll now be focusing on identifying priorities.
As you travel along the road of your semester, every week you have a finite amount of time. It’s kind of like having one tank of gas you can use per week. You need to decide how you want to use that time. When we’re really under pressure, it’s important to do our best to figure out how to build in whatever time we can for whatever will refill our tank.
Refer to page 2 of the Time Management Handout. Ask students to take about minutes and quickly note 5 – 10 things that they want to make sure they make time for, most weeks.
Consider not just classes and study time, but things like:
Physical wellness—exercise, rest, eating well
Social time
Relaxation time, hobbies, etc.
Family commitments
Work
After students complete their notes, you can ask them to turn to the person to their right to compare notes.
Ask the full class – What do you think about this?

9. Set Up a Weekly Schedule
You have your deadlines where you can easily refer to them, and you’ve thought about what you want to make sure you make time for.
Now let’s look at how to set up a weekly schedule.
Do any of you use a weekly schedule now? How does it help you?
Please look at the sample weekly schedule on page 3 of your handout. What do you notice?
(Look for comments such as: Includes commuting time, time for meals, gym and yoga. Includes study time AND study time is designated for certain classes. Student has scheduled time to review notes math class right after class, while information is fresh. Student has some open time – not every minute is booked.)
So with Steven, we saw a schedule that made it easy to get off track. He had really big work commitments, but wasn’t clearly committing study time. A schedule like this can help you stay on track, because you’ve decided how to spend your time, and you’re making things really clear. (Next slide continues this point.)

10. Which is most likely to happen?
“I’m going to work out
30 minutes every
Tuesday and Thursday
at 7:30 AM.”
“I’m going to get in shape.”
Which is most likely to happen? Thinking – “I’m going to get in shape” or writing down, “I’m going to work out 30 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30”?
Why is it more likely you’ll do the Tuesday-Thursday work out? (You’re clearer about the commitment.)
Are you more likely to work out if you get up and have to look around for exercise clothes and shoes, or if you have everything organized and ready to go?
If you are clear about what you’re going to do, and you make sure you have what you need, like a quiet place to study, you’re setting yourself up to succeed.
That’s the idea behind the weekly schedule.

11. Weekly schedule
Write down your ideal schedule for next week (use your Planner or the blank weekly schedule). Include all of your classes.
Note your fixed commitments, such as classes, work, and commuting time.
Schedule study time for each class. Allow about 2 hours for each hour of class time.
Build in time for at least some of your other priorities.
Build in unscheduled time.
Questions?
Review assignment and check for questions. Let students know if this is homework or whether they’ll have class time to do this.
Refer to pages 4 and 5 of the Time Management Handout.

12. Use a Weekly To-Do List
Write down what you need to do, in one place (not in your head, not on a different pieces of paper). If you have a lot to do, decide what’s most important and mark it with a * or A, B, or C.
Refer to pages 6 – 8 of the Time Management handout.
The last time management strategy is to keep one weekly to-do list with what you need to do for classes.
You can use the checklist in your handout, or just keep a list on a piece of paper or in your phone. The main thing is to keep track of what you need to do in one place, rather than trying to remember everything or having to-do’s in different places.
If something pops into your head that you need to do, get in the habit of writing it down in this central list.
If you have a lot on your plate, it can be very helpful to put a star by the most important items, or label tasks as A, B or C priorities. Seeing a visual signal that something is a priority will help you get it done.
Give students an assignment to write their to-do’s for this class, for the coming week—what they need to read, prepare, etc. If possible, they should also write their to-do’s for their other classes.

13. Make your next step small and specific.
Instead of …
Use specific, manageable next steps …
Read homework.
Read chapter 4 and note questions.
Work on term paper!
Decide on topic for paper.
Find three references.
Write outline.
Math issues
Write down what’s confusing about math assignment.
Ask teacher or Jim (student who’s good at math).
[Handout, page 6]
One of the tricks to staying on top of what you need to do is to ask yourself, “What’s the next step?”
[Review the slide.]
A lot of times, if we’re putting something off, it’s because the next step is too big or it’s unclear. It’s easy to put off writing a paper. It’s much more do-able if you say you’ll decide on a topic and find three references.

14. Weekly To-Do’s for this class
Write your to-do’s for this class for the coming week. (If you can, write them for other classes as well.)
Use handout form or make your own.
Check semester planner (and syllabus if needed).
See if this is helpful.

15. Compare notes on your weekly schedule and weekly to-do list
Pair- Share- Discuss
Compare notes on your weekly schedule and weekly to-do list
with the person next to you.
Were these useful for you?
Questions or comments?
Give pairs a few minutes to discuss, and then check for comments and questions.

16. What questions do you have about time management?
What are your favorite time management tips?
Check for questions about time management.
Have students read over page 9 of their Time Management Handout. Ask if they have any favorite tips, or tips of their own to add.
CLICK
Ask them to take a few minutes to write down three things they’ll do to manage their time, on page 9.
Ask if anyone wants to share their thoughts.
What are three things you will do
to manage your time?