How I Manage My Time

Going back to school while maintaining a full-time job can be a challenge. I have been attending Walters State since the Fall of 2008 and during that time have developed some techniques to help keep me on track. I read a few college related blogs and see that time management is one thing that many students struggle with, so I thought I would put together a little write-up about how I manage my time in hopes that it will help some others.

For starters, I have a Google Calendar for Walters State specific things. Before the semester starts, I get the list of important dates (like when fees are due and when classes start, when holidays are, etc) from the school and put them on this calendar. Having this as a separate calendar in gcal makes it easy for me to identify what events are school related as opposed to work/personal. Once my schedule is finalized, I put this information on this calendar as well. I know that I will probably not forget when I have classes, but this way I can see my commitments when I look at my calendar without having to think about it.

The next step is to create a new list in Remember The Milk, "Walters State Fall 2010". I use a single list for each semester (I use tags to divide it out by class). I add this list to gcal as a new calendar, again so I can see everything in one place. It's not ideal, but it does help add these things to my visual field when I'm doing a review of what I have coming up.

Then I create a new smart list in RTM, "Class Work To Do". The smart list will show me everything that has no due date, is overdue or is due this week (the next 7 days). I also include anything that is due in the future, but is something that I should be working on now. For example, if I have a paper that I estimate will take me 14 days to complete and it's due 16 days from now, then I want to see that on my smart list. This logic makes the criteria for this smart list long, but it's really not as complicated as it looks.

list:"Walters State Fall 2010" and ( dueWithin:"7 days" OR dueBefore:today OR due:never OR (due:"7 days" AND timeEstimate:"> 1 day") OR (due:"8 days" AND timeEstimate:"> 2 days") OR (due:"9 days" AND timeEstimate:"> 3 days") OR (due:"10 days" AND timeEstimate:"> 4 days") OR (due:"11 days" AND timeEstimate:"> 5 days") OR (due:"12 days" AND timeEstimate:"> 6 days") OR (due:"13 days" and timeEstimate:"> 7 days") OR (due:"14 days" and timeEstimate:"> 8 days") OR (due:"15 days" and timeEstimate:"> 9 days") OR (due:"16 days" and timeEstimate:"> 10 days") OR (due:"17 days" and timeEstimate:"> 11 days") OR (due:"18 days" and timeEstimate:"> 12 days") OR (due:"19 days" and timeEstimate:"> 13 days") OR (due:"20 days" and timeEstimate:"> 14 days") OR (due:"21 days" and timeEstimate:"> 15 days") OR (due:"22 days" and timeEstimate:"> 16 days") OR (due:"23 days" and timeEstimate:"> 17 days") OR (due:"24 days" and timeEstimate:"> 18 days") OR (due:"25 days" and timeEstimate:"> 19 days") OR (due:"26 days" and timeEstimate:"> 20 days") OR (due:"27 days" and timeEstimate:"> 21 days") OR (due:"28 days" and timeEstimate:"> 22 days") OR (due:"29 days" and timeEstimate:"> 23 days") OR (due:"30 days" and timeEstimate:"> 24 days") OR (due:"31 days" and timeEstimate:"> 25 days") OR (due:"32 days" and timeEstimate:"> 26 days") OR (due:"33 days" and timeEstimate:"> 27 days") OR (due:"34 days" and timeEstimate:"> 28 days") OR (due:"35 days" and timeEstimate:"> 29 days") OR (due:"36 days" and timeEstimate:"> 30 days") OR (due:"37 days" and timeEstimate:"> 31 days") OR (due:"38 days" and timeEstimate:"> 32 days") OR (due:"39 days" and timeEstimate:"> 33 days") OR (due:"40 days" and timeEstimate:"> 34 days") OR (due:"41 days" and timeEstimate:"> 35 days") OR (due:"42 days" and timeEstimate:"> 36 days") OR (due:"43 days" and timeEstimate:"> 37 days") OR (due:"44 days" and timeEstimate:"> 38 days") OR (due:"45 days" and timeEstimate:"> 39 days") OR (due:"46 days" and timeEstimate:"> 40 days") OR (due:"47 days" and timeEstimate:"> 41 days") OR (due:"48 days" and timeEstimate:"> 42 days") OR (due:"49 days" and timeEstimate:"> 43 days") OR (due:"50 days" and timeEstimate:"> 44 days") OR (due:"51 days" and timeEstimate:"> 45 days") OR (due:"52 days" and timeEstimate:"> 46 days") OR (due:"53 days" and timeEstimate:"> 47 days") OR (due:"54 days" and timeEstimate:"> 48 days") OR (due:"55 days" and timeEstimate:"> 49 days") OR (due:"56 days" and timeEstimate:"> 50 days") OR (due:"57 days" and timeEstimate:"> 51 days") OR (due:"58 days" and timeEstimate:"> 52 days") OR (due:"59 days" and timeEstimate:"> 53 days") OR (due:"60 days" and timeEstimate:"> 54 days") OR (due:"61 days" and timeEstimate:"> 55 days") OR (due:"62 days" and timeEstimate:"> 56 days") OR (due:"63 days" and timeEstimate:"> 57 days") OR (due:"64 days" and timeEstimate:"> 58 days") OR (due:"65 days" and timeEstimate:"> 59 days") OR (due:"66 days" and timeEstimate:"> 60 days") OR (due:"67 days" and timeEstimate:"> 61 days") OR (due:"68 days" and timeEstimate:"> 62 days") OR (due:"69 days" and timeEstimate:"> 63 days") OR (due:"70 days" and timeEstimate:"> 64 days") OR (due:"71 days" and timeEstimate:"> 65 days") OR (due:"72 days" and timeEstimate:"> 66 days") OR (due:"73 days" and timeEstimate:"> 67 days") OR (due:"74 days" and timeEstimate:"> 68 days") OR (due:"75 days" and timeEstimate:"> 69 days") OR (due:"76 days" and timeEstimate:"> 70 days") OR (due:"77 days" and timeEstimate:"> 71 days") OR (due:"78 days" and timeEstimate:"> 72 days") OR (due:"79 days" and timeEstimate:"> 73 days") OR (due:"80 days" and timeEstimate:"> 74 days") OR (due:"81 days" and timeEstimate:"> 75 days") OR (due:"82 days" and timeEstimate:"> 76 days") OR (due:"83 days" and timeEstimate:"> 77 days") OR (due:"84 days" and timeEstimate:"> 78 days") OR (due:"85 days" and timeEstimate:"> 79 days") OR (due:"86 days" and timeEstimate:"> 80 days") OR (due:"87 days" and timeEstimate:"> 81 days") OR (due:"88 days" and timeEstimate:"> 82 days") OR (due:"89 days" and timeEstimate:"> 83 days") OR (due:"90 days" and timeEstimate:"> 84 days") OR (due:"91 days" and timeEstimate:"> 85 days") OR (due:"92 days" and timeEstimate:"> 86 days") OR (due:"93 days" and timeEstimate:"> 87 days") OR (due:"94 days" and timeEstimate:"> 88 days") OR (due:"95 days" and timeEstimate:"> 89 days") OR (due:"96 days" and timeEstimate:"> 90 days") OR (due:"97 days" and timeEstimate:"> 91 days") OR (due:"98 days" and timeEstimate:"> 92 days") OR (due:"99 days" and timeEstimate:"> 93 days") )

On day one of the Semester, I go through the syllabus for each class and note important tasks. I enter these into RTM and tag them with the class for which they are associated. This is where RTM lets me down somewhat; many of these tasks are what GTDers would call a project - they require sub tasks or actions and RTM does not support sub-tasks. If anyone has suggestions for how to improve on this I'd love to see it.

Since I still do somethings the old fashioned way, I use one manila folder for each class. Any hand-outs that are given as well as copies of any work that I turn in get placed in this folder.

Having this information available to me on the go is key to my ability to keep up with things. My iPhone is a life saver here. It is easy to add the Google Calendars to my iPhone and RTM has a great iPhone app, so it's easy to keep up with (and update) this information when I'm not at my laptop.

I tried to use Google Tasks, but found that the lists there simply overwhelm me. The one massive list in RTM would also overwhelm me if that was the list that I looked at everyday, but the smart list limits the massive list to just the things that I need to be working on right now, so it is very managable for me.

My school e-mail is kept separate from other e-mail. That inbox is checked daily and processed in typical GTD fashion - if I can deal with it in 2 minutes or less, I deal with it; if not, I put an item on my RTM to-do list and archive the e-mail. My e-mails are all archived by semester; I've found that I generally do not refer to the old e-mails and when I do, the search functionality has worked well enough that I do not need a bunch of e-mail folders to manage.

At the end of each day, I go over notes that I took during class, identify any to-dos that came from the class discussion, and add the to my to-do list. Then I review my to-do list and make sure that I'm not overlooking anything.

This semester, Evernote began to play a part in how I manage information. I used Evernote to capture images drawn on the board during class by the instructor to supplement my notes and I used it to capture images from the text that I needed to have available for study purposes. I plan to try some of the tips from this article http://blog.evernote.com/2010/12/15/10-evernote-tips-for-school-education-series next semester and I expect that Evernote will become more valuable as time goes on.