Time Management

In the middle of my third year here at Iowa, this has been the semester that has stretched my time management skills the most. Everything from coursework, work, interviewing and a social life have all come to an extreme this semester...so how am I still sane at the end of the day: Calendar, Priority Setting and Communication!

Calendar:

If you don't already use an online calendar (i.e. Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, iCal) then start! It has been my savior and lifeblood to keeping me sane and on task when it comes to projects, coursework and deadlines. I obviously have my course schedule and meetings scheduled, but I also put my due dates and "pre dates" to the due dates so if hiccups come up on a paper, project or teamwork I can address them early on, instead of at 3AM the morning before the project is due. Also, I use my calendar to communicate with others my schedule and to schedule personal time with friends and family.

Priority Setting:

Looking at your deadlines, groups your in and projects your working on are very important, especially when it comes to priority. You have to decided yourself which may be more important based on timeline, severity and social responsibility. Either way, a calendar can help you out with this along with the next topic, communication!

Communication:

This is key to figuring out the answers to the two previous ways of time management. Talk with those on your team or those involving the projects you are working on to get more information about priority of the project or timeline of it.

Overall, this has been on my mind and wanted to push it through in terms of my blog, cause as a grad student things only fly by just that much faster and time management get stretched just a little bit more than undergrad.

Ryan