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| Student Time-Savers |
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Please note: As of May, 2008, this site is no longer being updated.
Click here to visit the new seminary website.
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Even though we've all read the books, it's sometimes helpful to be reminded of ways to save time. The following time-savers were published in the Power of Inc., June 2001, and modified slightly for the busy student.
- Make a daily list-last thing at night or first thing in the morning. Making a list helps you organize priorities and keeps you on track throughout the day.
- File, respond to, or trash mail as you open it. Don't allow yourself to accumulate miles of piles-you'll just end up sorting through the same papers over and over again.
- Eliminate needless interruptions. Let your family, voice mail, or answering machine record your messages and return all calls at one time during the day.
- Utilize the "slingshot principle" by taking a vacation. There are times when you need to pull back in order to really fly. Burning yourself out is not an effective use of your time. Some of the greatest ideas and solutions occur when you're relaxed and refreshed.
- Finish one task before getting involved in another or at least stop at a natural stopping point. Try to bring closure to tasks, or "chunk down" large tasks into smaller components so you work on it a little at a time but are always making progress.
- Consolidate errands. Make one shopping trip to go to the dry cleaner, drug store, post office, and grocery store instead of four trips. Organize your route to avoid backtracking, Keep an ongoing list of needed supplies to eliminate trips for forgotten items.
- Clump similar tasks together and do them all at once. It's far more time efficient to make phone calls all at once, then work on all email, and then open all written mail, than it is to intermingle these tasks.
- Organize living and work spaces. Disorganized space is not just inefficient, it is psychologically exhausting. Pick one area to organize every day for a month. Start with the area that bothers you the most. Or, if disorganization doesn't seem to bother you, start where you spend the most time. If the very idea of organizing overwhelms you, humble yourself and ask someone to do it for you.
- Invest in the proper tools to get your work done more effectively. In the long run, it can be more costly to make do with outdated tools and ineffective equipment than to buy what you need to improve production.
- Listen to education-related tapes in the car. Instead of being stressed out by traffic, engage your brain. Master the latest strategies for success by listening to tapes during drive time. One student said she had imaginary conversations with her thesis advisor discussing various problems with her thesis, and recorded the "conversations" to stimulate her work when she got home.
- Utilize waiting time. Always keep reading material that you want to read in your car so you can make good use of time spent waiting for appointments.
- Procrastinate after you finish doing what you need to do.
- Schedule your recreation time. Remember what and who you're working for: schedule time with God, spouse, children, and friends. Pencil in some time for yourself while you're at it.
- Learn to navigate your city better. Finding new and better routes to places you go routinely can save you hours every year.
- Minimize watching TV. Use the TV program guide and schedule a few shows you really want to see just like other important activities. Don't turn on your TV unless you know exactly what show you will watch; then, turn the TV off before the show's credits are over.
- Read just the first sentence of newspaper paragraphs. This is a common practice of many busy executives. The relevant news is usually summed up in the first sentence of each paragraph.
- Guard yourself against the tendency to talk-away your work hours. Chat at breaks; tackle your work the rest of the time.
- Start a greeting card file. Buy a few dozen birthday, anniversary, get well, thank you, and congratulations cards and file them according to occasion. This will save you dozens of trips to the store when you discover you've almost forgotten an important date/event.
- Shop for gifts year-round and start a gift closet. Whenever you see a nice gift item on sale, pick up a few of them and you'll always have an appropriate gift on hand.
- Utilize low-cost delivery and professional services. Ask yourself, "Can I afford to pay someone else to do this and save myself the time?" If so, pay to have it done and use your time more effectively.
- If you're thinking about getting a pet, consider the amount of care an animal needs. Fish are lower maintenance than dogs.
- Don't let clutter accumulate. Clean as you go.
- Know when to end a conversation. Learn how to draw drawn-out conversations to a satisfying-but timely-conclusion.
- Eat for energy. Eat a variety of wholesome, nutritious foods and resist the temptation to overeat or munch while you're working at the computer.
- Exercise for energy. Improve your health and you improve your life and accomplish more with less fatigue. Make time for exercise.
- Study the habits of productive people. You don't need to reinvent the wheel. Just do what the wheelmaker does. Observe and imitate the time-management experts around you.
- Develop your film by mail. You'll save time and money.
- Learn to say no. You are not super human. There is a limit to your energy and ability to accomplish an endless list of tasks. Say no to low-priority items. Repeat the phrase: "It seems like an interesting thing to do and I'd love to do it, but I've already committed to another project that's consuming all my free time. Thanks for thinking of me, though."
- Clump annual checkups/dentist/renewals together in your birthday month. You'll never forget annual to-dos if you do them in your birthday month.
- Take a speed reading class and learn to type faster. You can do both of these on a personal computer. Investing time now will save infinitely more time later.
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