Time Management

Narration: Three students are discussing time management at university. Speaker 1: There are a lot of challenges for us at university. It's not just doing well in the courses; we have to be able to balance the academic work with a personal life and also find time to join some extracurricular activities. I mean I don't want my years at university to be only studying and writing papers. Speaker 2: I know. There's just so much to do. I have to get to the lectures, do all the readings and assignments, complete several projects, and get ready for exams. I hardly have time to breathe. Speaker 3: You know, it's true. My biggest challenge since I started university is managing my time. I can't seem to get myself organized and I always feel stressed and exhausted. And the worst thing is that I just seem to get organized and the term ends and I have to get used to a whole new schedule. Speaker 1: I agree. That is really difficult. Each course has its own schedule, deadlines, and requirements. It's so difficult to create a consistent routine so I can allocate my time effectively. And everything seems to take longer than I thought. Speaker 2: The worst part is that I often procrastinate and put off tasks until the last minute. I think to myself, oh I have lots of time for that, I have a whole week before it's due. Then all of a sudden, the due date is in two days and I'm rushed and don't do a very good job. Speaker 3: That's happened to me so many times. The deadlines are weeks or months away and I have trouble with long-term planning. It's hard to plan so far ahead but you have to or you end up rushed. The problem is that you have to learn to multi-task and I was never very good at that. I like to finish one project and start on another. But that's impossible when all the projects and essays are due at the same time at the end of the term. You really have to be able to multi-task at university, you have to be able to jump from one topic to another and one type of assignment to another. Speaker 1: All these tight deadlines, diverse course requirements and multi-tasking pressures make university time management far more difficult than I expected. It's really hard to stay stable and efficient when so many different tasks pile up at the same time. Speaker 2: If I could manage my time better, I probably wouldn't be so stressed and exhausted. I've never had to discipline myself like this before. In high school, the teachers told you what to do and when to do it. If you just did what they said, you were fine. But in university, it's up to you to prioritize what tasks are the most important and should be done first. It seems I spend too much time on less important tasks because I like them or they are easier, then I don't have time for the more important ones. Speaker 3: I guess not managing your time effectively means that you end up working more than you really need to and you feel so tired and sort of burnt out. I think the university offers a seminar on time management. Maybe we should all go.