Activity 10  Managing Your Time Successfully

"Too little time" is a common excuse for not exercising or engaging in other healthy behaviors. Learning to manage your time successfully is crucial if you are to maintain a wellness lifestyle. The first step is to examine how you are currently spending your time; use the following grid broken into blocks to track your activities.

Time Activity
6:00 A.M.
7:00 A.M.
8:00 A.M.
9:00 A.M.
10:00 A.M.
11:00 A.M.
12:00 P.M.
1:00 P.M.
2:00 P.M.
3:00 P.M.
4:00 P.M.
5:00 P.M.

 

Time Activity
6:00 P.M.
7:00 P.M.
8:00 P.M.
9:00 P.M.
10:00 P.M.
11:00 P.M.
12:00 A.M.
1:00 A.M.
2:00 A.M.
3:00 A.M.
4:00 A.M.
5:00 A.M.

Next, list each type of activity and the total time you engaged in it on a given day in the chart below (for example, sleeping, 7 hours; eating, 1.5 hours; studying, 3 hours; working, 3 hours; and so on). Take a close look at your list of activities. Successful time management is based on prioritization. Assign a priority to each of your activities according to how important it is to you: essential (A), somewhat important (B), or not important (C). Based on these priority rankings, make changes in your schedule by adding and subtracting hours from different categories of activities; enter a duration goal for each activity. Add your new activities to the list, and assign a priority and duration goal to each.

Activity 1

Current Total Duration Priority (A, B, or C) Goal Total Duration

Activity 2

Current Total Duration Priority (A, B, or C) Goal Total Duration

Activity 3

Current Total Duration Priority (A, B, or C) Goal Total Duration

Activity 4

Current Total Duration Priority (A, B, or C) Goal Total Duration

Activity 5

Current Total Duration Priority (A, B, or C) Goal Total Duration

Activity 6

Current Total Duration Priority (A, B, or C) Goal Total Duration

Activity 7

Current Total Duration Priority (A, B, or C) Goal Total Duration

Activity 8

Current Total Duration Priority (A, B, or C) Goal Total Duration
Your Name
Your Email Address
Professor Email Address

Prioritizing in this manner will involve tradeoffs. For example, you may choose to reduce the amount of time you spend watching television, listening to music, and chatting on the telephone while you increase the amount of time spent sleeping, studying, and exercising. Don’t feel that you have to miss out on anything you enjoy. You can get more from less time by focusing on what you are doing. Strategies for managing time more productively and creatively are described in Chapter 10.