Further on Time Management in Online Courses

Last post I talked about the tools of time management–a term schedule/calendar, a daily planner, and one or more to-do lists. Then I outlined the first of the two habits that are critical to making your system work–writing everything down that will take time, that is a commitment, that is a deadline.

The second critical habit is reviewing your system every day. This is where so often with students, professionals, teachers–everyone–things fall off the rails. You’re tired at the end of the day. It’s Friday. You have to get this other assignment finished to hand in. Your partner has a problem they want to talk about. You can catch up tomorrow. Gaming “just for only ten minutes”. Write your own script–it happens.

If you treated your teeth that way . . . Just sayin’.

That’s actually the approach that one student took–they said “This is like brushing my teeth. I do it after dinner and before I go to bed.” Sometimes the review was pretty short, sometimes it was a full scheduling and planning session. But it eliminated next day surprises, or deadlines suddenly appearing out of the blue.

Just like brushing your teeth, if you did miss last night, you can’t fix that. But you can review tonight, and that’s what will keep you in better control of tomorrow.

This is a key habit, a key element. Never miss doing it. And when you do miss, start from the present moment.

There still appears to be no difference between managing time in physical course delivery mode, and online delivery mode. Next post, I’ll share effective planning and reviewing.

In the meantime, if you have a metaphor for building a routine and sticking to a routine that is important to you, let me know [email protected]