It seems many of us have time management and organizational strategies and many of us could share tips. Share them here! Ask questions here!
Patience, Please
This site is under reconstruction and will look strange for a while. We regret the inconvenience.
I would love tips on time management. I have a particularly demanding class this quarter, and what I’ve done in the past with demanding classes is hang out in office hours and work with other peoples/TAs, but this quarter most of my evenings (MTW) are shot so I can’t go to office hours nearly as often as I would like to. Any suggestions for motivating myself to just sit down and do it? It’s especially frustrating with coding, as I hit a wall, set it aside for “just a few minutes to generate ideas”, and get totally distracted.
My most valuable time-management tool is a little kitchen timer. Actually, I have several of them, so there’s always one within reach. I use them mainly to make sure I spend enough time on things I don’t feel like doing, and to make sure I don’t spend too much time on things that are pleasant or absorbing. A lot of annoying chores are bearable if you limit them to five minutes, or 15 minutes, or half an hour — and it’s surprising how much you can accomplish in a short time if you really focus on it.
I’ve known artists who paint with a timer counting down so they don’t have to keep looking at a clock. There are loads of other possible uses.