Time Management Exercise Assignment
Instructions
At this point in
the course, you probably have developed some living patterns that include your
school workload. Perhaps you have cut
out social time or a second job. Maybe a
spouse or someone else close has taken on some additional responsibility to
help you better prioritize your time.
Regardless of the changes made to date, and others that will follow,
success in this program depends in part on how you manage your time.
Each student will
prepare a time audit. This assignment will be challenging, but helpful,
as it will require you to keep track of your time in 30-minute increments.
All it takes is a little discipline. You need not stop in the middle of something
to record your time – simply wait until you finish the activity to record the
event and time spent. However, do not wait until the end of the day to
fill out your log sheets. That would somewhat diminish the point of the
assignment, as the whole point is to record activities and times as close to
the time period as possible. You will also need to assess each
time/activity as to your effectiveness in completing the task and/or staying
focused.
Do not obsess with
this assignment. Perfection is not required, only completion of this audit and
related narrative, recording the approximate time periods of daily activities,
both typical and atypical.
Again, only you
and the professor will see your results (unless you wish to share with your
classmates).
To complete the
audit, do the following:
– Audit how you use time for five (5) consecutive days
(Monday-Friday or Tuesday-Saturday), in 30-minute increments.
– Use the Microsoft Excel Log (tab for each
day) to keep track of your activities.
– While recording approximate time periods is
allowed, try to record the times as close to the time period each occurred.
– Complete the log to include an assessment of your
time spent and/or effectiveness in completing the noted task(s) noting any
comments or observations (see next instruction).
– At the end of each day, complete an approximately
150-word summary of all the day’s activities with a focus on special events.
– Do this each day, for five (5) days in one (1)
submission. The sheet has a tab for each of the five (5) days. The
narrative should be written in an MS Word document. All five (5) days should be combined into one
document, just be certain each day is properly identified.
– Craft a narrative (600 words) to submit with your
time log that addresses how you believe the DSL program will affect/is
affecting your current work/life balance. You should address how you plan
to integrate the workload of the DSL into your current work/life balance, noting
any identified challenges or opportunities.
TIME MANAGEMENT LOG ATTACHED TO BE EDITED.
