Thursday, June 5, 2014

Time Management for Success



Does this sound familiar? You are sitting at the computer typing away at your paper that is due tomorrow. You think to yourself, “I need a break. I have worked on this for a while now and I deserve a short break.” You get on Facebook to check out the TWU Health Studies page and then you look through your feed. Next, you decide to visit Tublr, Vine, YouTube and then you realize that hours have passed during your “short break.” Sometimes it isn’t even the internet that sucks you into abyss of time wasting. It could be Netflix, Vudu, or the gaming console. We all have the same 24 hours a day, but sometimes we want a few more hours a day just to get everything done. On some occasions a whole extra day would be useful as well. Unfortunately, we cannot create time, we can only manage it. 


Time management skills are a difficult to master at first, but once you get into a routine you are an assignment completer machine! The key to time management is to maintain a healthy balance among work, school, family, personal time and don’t forget sleep. But everyone has different needs when it comes to time management. Some people need a schedule, others might need a list of things to accomplish and then there are those that need to have all distractions out of reach and out of sight.  Let’s explore some options that could help you become a time manager extraordinaire.


Doris

This is not the same Doris found in the movie Meet the Robinsons, a bowler hat robot that tries to take over the world. Oh no, this is a friendly and ease to use app that can be used on a computers and smartphones. It allows you to make lists of items to accomplish or a to-do list. Once you accomplish the task, simply select it and it checks the item and is removed from the list. There is access to a task history which allows you to see all of your proud accomplishments. Users can even make multiple to-do lists. If you are a person who cannot seem to get a handle on what needs to be accomplished and just need a list to remind you, then Doris is for you. More information about Doris can be found here


Rescue Time

Do you have problems browsing the internet rather than writing your discussion board post? Then Rescue Time is the tool for you. Rescue Time is an app that helps users understand their daily habits and what hinders their productivity. It is a program that runs in the background of computers or mobile devices and records what the user is doing. Rescue Time can provide detailed reports to show you how many minutes or hours you spent watching those cute cat videos. On a good note, Rescue Time does show you all of the important tasks you completed too. Say you get sucked into Vine videos and you need a reminder to get back to work, you can set up a reminder to work on your final paper after 10 minutes. For those of you who are hardcore about being locked down to finish the literature assignment, Rescue Time allows you to completely block the use of certain websites, so the temptation is out of reach completely. The website block can be password protected. This might be something evil that your roommate could hold over your head, so be careful as to who sets up the passwords. To get more information about Rescue Time, click here.


Wunderlist

Is a great tool and is more of a to-do list on steroids. Wunderlist  list not only allows users to make a to-do list, but it set reminders, due dates, allows the user to add notes, upload files, add subtasks, email the file or to-do list to others and even sets reminders for others. This is the ideal group project app and if you are enrolled in course within the Department of Health Studies, you know we like group projects. You can send reminders to the group letting them know that draft one is due next week and that you need to meet soon.  Wunderlist even allows you to have separate categories such as work, personal, family, school and the list of movies that you need to catchup on because you cannot fit them all into your schedule during the summer. You can find more information about Wunderlist here.

The great thing is that these apps and programs are free! Of course there are some upgrades that cost some money, but the free versions are effective. Each app is able to be used on several devices too. Now you have some tools to help you become a more effective time manager.


If you need more time management tips visit our other post: http://twuhealthstudies.blogspot.com/2011/11/time-management-tips.html


References

Rescue Time. (n.d.). Rescue time. Retrieved from https://www.rescuetime.com/

Seagull Systems Ltd. (2014). Doris. Retrieved from http://beta.dorisapp.com/

Wunderlist. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.wunderlist.com/en/



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1 comment:

Unknown said...

There is no doubt with the fact that with a proper time management, the level of productivity is always at a peak pace. For a better control over the time management, I prefer keeping track of the hours spent on a particular task and project. That approach some what makes me manage the time with respective approach.