Building A SCHEDULE DESIGNED FOR PRODUCTIVITY HOW TO CREATE A SCHEDULE THAT MAXIMIZES EFFICIENCY AND PROMOTES A HEALTHY BUT PRODUCTIVE SCHOOL/WORK/SELF-CARE BALANCE Aspen Cole ~ Academic Coach ~ Kortschak Center for Learning and Creativity Hi, I’m Aspen Cole, and I am an academic coach at the Kortschak Center for Learning and Creativity. In this workshop, Building a Schedule Designed for Productivity, I will be giving you tips and tricks on how to create a schedule that maximizes efficiency and promotes a healthy but productive school, work, and self-care balance.

Learning Outcomes Create Build Prioritize Create a course schedule that fits your personal needs Create Build a productive schedule that manages commitments Build Prioritize self-care Prioritize We’ve all been there. It’s almost time to start enrolling in your courses for the semester. You have some required GEs, Major courses, a part time job, and a significant other. On top of that, you’re trying to take up yoga and your friends want to catch up too. Where do you begin to build your schedule? Do you just sandwich everything in and hope for the best? What if you end up overbooking yourself? I always wish I could be like Hermione from Harry Potter, where she overloads herself with classes and uses a time turner to travel back in time so she can make it to all of her commitments without missing any. Unfortunately, magic isn’t real, but all your time commitments are. In this workshop we will analyze how to build and create a class and work schedule that works for you while also prioritizing self-care.

Building a schedule Start with the least flexible commitments first Be realistic – know when you are most productive Be aware of geography and make sure you are taking travel times into consideration When building a schedule, you want to start with the least flexible commitments first. These are commitments where the dates and times are set in stone and you aren’t able to change them. For example, class schedules, and some work schedules or extracurricular activities may have to occur at specific times and cannot be adjusted. These are the things you want to put in your schedule first and continue by building everything else around them. After adding these things to your schedule, you are then able to add in set study times. It’s important to make sure that you are being realistic with your planning. If you know you hate waking up early, you probably won’t be able to stick to a schedule that includes 7am sessions. It is also very important to take travel time into consideration. It’s great in theory to have your classes back to back, but you also don’t want to be forcing yourself to run across campus so you’re not late. Similarly, you absolutely do not want to be rushing in traffic and potentially get into a car accident all because you scheduled your off-campus job to start right after your last class.

Spacing out classes | Blocking Classes Allows time for food breaks between classes No rushing from one class to the next Extra time to study on campus No dead time between classes Get all of your classes out of the way at once Great for scheduling around work shifts Makes your day more open There are two ways you can schedule classes and there are benefits to both. Spacing out classes allows you to take time between classes to grab lunch and run other errands. Leaving a 2-3 hour block between classes also gives you the time to go to a library and get some school work done. On the other hand, blocking your schedule allows you to get all of your classes out of the way either earlier or later in the day. This gives you a large chunk of time before or after to schedule work, extracurricular activities, or have a nice long study session. Here is an example of a schedule I utilized during a semester of undergrad that uses a mixture of spaced out days as well as blocked days.

By scheduling classes that ended early on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, I was able to build my work schedule around that and arranged to work Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and Saturdays. It’s important to be aware of how comfortable you are in terms of balancing work and school. If you feel as if one activity is draining efficiency in another, consider your priorities and try to limit the activity that is consuming valuable energy.

I was able to find time to study and complete assignments during my gaps between classes, my time before work, and on the weekends if necessary. I always made sure to free up my Friday evenings to spend time with friends or drive home to visit my family. Because Fridays were my longest days it was nice to take the time for self-care afterwards. This is just an example of a schedule I had that worked for me and it’s important that you are working your schedule around what’s best for you.

Self- Care Remember to eat Take breaks Make sure you are also taking time to do things you enjoy Don’t overindulge Schoolwork and studying can be stressful and overwhelming, so it’s important to remember to take time to participate in moments of self-care throughout the day. Self-care comes in many shapes and forms, from taking time to eat a nice meal to going to the movies with friends. Building a schedule also includes leaving time for yourself. According to Dembo & Seli (2012), most students need a short 5-10 minute break for every hour of studying. However some students with lower attention spans may need a 2-3 minute break every 30 minutes, while others may be able to concentrate for longer periods of time. It’s important to know when you need breaks and how long they need to be.

Covey’s Time Management Grid Organize your tasks into the appropriate quadrants Make sure you are setting aside time each day to do some Quadrant 2 activities (Dembo & Seli) Avoid doing Quadrant 3 or 4 activities at the expense of Quadrant 1 and 2 activities While self-care is necessary, many students overestimate their amount of free time and end up overindulging in self-care strategies and neglecting their studies. It is important to properly align your priorities. Using Covey’s (1995) time management grid can help you find a healthy balance between coursework and self-care. Covey’s time management grid allows you to allocate your tasks into four quadrants. Quadrant 1 is for tasks that are important and urgent, Quadrant 2 is for tasks that are Important and not urgent, Quadrant 3 is for tasks that are urgent, but not important, and Quadrant 4 is for not urgent, unimportant tasks. You want to make sure that you are accomplishing tasks in Quadrant 1 and taking time each day to do Quadrant 2 activities so that they do not become Quadrant 1 activities. While doing Quadrant 3 and 4 activities is completely fine, you want to make sure that those activities aren’t being prioritized over Quadrant 1 activities.

References Covey, S. R., Merrill, A. R., & Merrill, R. R. (1995). First things first. Simon and Schuster. Dembo, M. H. & Seli, H. (2016). Motivation and learning strategies for college success: A self-regulation approach (5th ed.). New York: Routledge. images retrieved from: https://www.qs.com/the-student-drift-towards-recession-proof-subjects/ https://www.123rf.com/photo_10350487_abstract-jigsaw-puzzle-background- illustration.html https://weheartit.com/articles/322390290-self-care-pt-1 Thank you for participating in this workshop. Now it’s time for you to start building your own schedule.