Time Management and Students: Questions About Menu Planning

I get a lot of questions about some of the time management strategies I talk about and one hot topic in particular concerns menu planning. Some common questions are...

When I'm already strapped for time how am I supposed to have the time to plan a full month's worth of menus?

The object isn't to plan a month's worth at one time but simply to work...day by day...toward creating a master menu plan. Each day as your family eats dinner and likes what they're eating then that meal...in the beginning...gets written down on an index card and filed away temporarily. Later you'll make your very own recipe book with the different...already family approved...recipes. So this is not going to require any more time than simply writing the meal down on a 3x5 index card for now...you can do that while browning hamburger.

I don't even know of 30 dinners my family eats!

You do not...I repeat, you do not...need to know 30 meals before you start this time saving task. You only need to know what your family's going to eat tonight. Here's the thing-the next 30 days are going to pass. They can either pass with you doing the same as you've always done...scrounging for ideas for meals day by day, walking like a zombie through the grocery store (even when it's not Halloween), and just feeling stressed out over the whole what-am-I-going-to-fix-for-dinner-tonight conundrum or 30 days from now, after taking 30 little bitty steps toward eating that proverbial elephant, you'll have a month's worth of menus to create your own recipe book and every single one will already be approved by your family.

If I make a month's worth of meals on paper there's going to be a lot of repeats and my family doesn't like that.

You don't create these menus all at once. They are created day by day for a couple of reasons.

First, because no one really has the time to just sit and think about 30 meals their family will eat.

Second, if we did create it all at once it would be very limiting because we would forget some of our family's favorite meals.

Third, that would simply fry my brain to try to remember all the foods we like at one time.

Fourth, by doing it day by day you get into the habit of writing down favorites and this is important because hopefully you won't quit experimenting.

Hopefully, you won't stop at one month's worth of menus. Keep trying new things and keep building your list of favorites.

Want more tips on time management? If so, then download my free ebook about Time Management and Students where you'll find ideas for time management in several crucial areas where we all struggle.

Time Management and Students: Best Practices

The relationship between time management and students is a tenuous one at best. Ask pretty much any student about their time management plan, and I would bet that the majority of the time you'd get rolling eyes and a belly laugh, followed by a "Yeah right, I'd love to have some time to manage"!

While everyone knows they need to get better at managing their time few seem to actually have the time to devote to creating even a short-term plan. Instead, they run around just surviving (sometimes barely) always meaning to do better tomorrow or next week.

Sound familiar?

There is a concept called best practice which is a way of doing things using some technique that can be relied upon to provide superior results as compared to results achieved by other means. Translated...it's the way to go to get to where you want to be in life. It really is simple...figure out what works and do it. It works for companies and it'll work for you.

What are some of the best practices of time management and students?

· Don't Neglect Your Family- They are, after all, what you're working for. When you can't spend time with them right now make future plans. It will give everyone something to look forward to.

· Make Time for Studying- Part of our self-esteem comes from how we perform in areas such as academics. We identify ourselves to a large degree by our performance (e.g., GPA, Honor Societies) and it just feels better when we do at least adequate in our classes.

· Save Time to Make Time- When you unexpectedly save time somewhere don't just waste it. Use it for spending time with your child or spouse. An example may be there are leftovers for dinner so you will save that time you would normally be cooking thereby making time for family.

· Allow Yourself to Recharge- Sometimes enough is enough. Sometimes you just can't do anymore. When I was a senior in college I had this one class that just whipped my butt. The previous week I'd had a rough week with midterms in my other 3 classes and the bad class's one was coming up on Monday. On Sunday morning I woke at about 7:00 am and began reading. I was beyond exhausted and only studied about half an hour before I laid over on the couch and slept for 2 hours. I woke up studied for about half an hour and fell asleep for 3 hours. I woke up studied for another half an hour and fell asleep for 4 hours. I went to sleep early that night, slept all night and woke the next morning feeling somewhat refreshed. The strange thing was that I did just as well on that midterm as if I'd studied as much as I'd been planning to. It really hit home how I'd run myself down. I never did it again to that extent even though I've pulled many all-nighters since then. It's a different story when it's a short-term situation.

There you have a short list of some of what I'd consider best practices for students where time management is concerned.

Download my free ebook about Time Management and Students where you'll find ideas for time management in several crucial areas where we all struggle. Also visit me at There Must Be A Better Way

The Most Important Time Management Tips For College Students

College involves a lot of preparations and adjustments. In some ways it is one of the hardest stages in a person's life.

There are some students who face the difficulty of having to work very hard to prove not only to themselves but to other people that they are worthy of getting into college and finishing it successfully with a degree.

To do all that is needed to succeed in college, proper time management is necessary.

You will make college life easier by managing and scheduling your time wisely.

Here are important ways to manage your time successfully in college:

* Learning how to decide which things are most important, and setting up all of the things that need to be done in an order of importance, is learning how to prioritize. Some say this is the most vital part of time management.

* Separately and in addition to a schedule, make a list of the most important things that need to be done, and then place the items you have listed in order from most to least important.

* Do not postpone difficult and hard tasks. Instead, break them into smaller parts if possible. Always make sure to start difficult assignments long ahead of the time they are due, and to devote the necessary time to them on a regular basis until they are completed.

* At the very minimum while you are commuting to your college classes, if you are going on a bus or train (but NOT if you are driving yourself!), you could be "multi-tasking" by reviewing your class notes. This can help you both be prepared for the upcoming class period you are on your to, and also will be helpful to you on your exams.

* Analyze your use of time over the course of an average weekday. Your goal in doing this is to estimate how much time you on average use for your daily activities. You can even extend the analysis for longer than a day, even up to a full week or even more. Another important goal of the exercise is to find and end (or decrease as much as possible) the activities that are wasting time (not including sleeping and breaks, of course).

* Have a time schedule for every day, and do your best to follow it. Include all things on your time schedule, including eating, sleeping, and yes, even the time for short breaks in between studying. You should also in addition to this have a schedule for each week, each month, and even for the entire semester. Viewing the different time frames like that brings clarity and should help you with time management in college.

* Being able to say "No" (politely, of course). There are going to be times when you must say "No" to whatever fun activities someone invites you to, that is at the same time that you for sure need to be studying for the big test the next day.

Learning proper time management for college is very important. Learning these things early on will help you be prepared for the life ahead of you. Time management skills will be important tools in achieving the life of your dreams.

David Love is the author of "Get Good Grades In College Now". Read more about his top ideas for Time Management here.

Time Management and Students: Helping Your Spouse Stay Motivated

Helping Our Spouse Stay Motivated

Is generally not a high priority in our mind. It just isn't. Studying housework, kids, laundry, cooking, shopping, now those are priorities. Falling into bed before falling over, now that's a priority.

But Think About All Your Spouse

Does to help you. It's probably quite a lot and... especially if you're a nontraditional student like I was... includes things like picking up the kids, heating leftovers (or even cooking), doing laundry (even just his own is a big help), keeping the kids entertained so you can study (a movie in a theater works great for this). He (or she) probably helps out much more than we give credit for.

We Have To Remember

That we're already motivated. I mean, it takes motivation to go to college. Motivation to study, do research, write papers, and study for exams.

Regardless of the how much or how little he does to help every little bit is something off your proverbial plate. It's something that he's taking time away from whatever he'd be doing otherwise to do something specifically for you.

I Can Just Hear the Chorus Ringing

"He'd just be watching TV" Yes, I know this. That could almost go without saying but while it may be true that that's what he'd prefer to be doing... he's not so that he can do something for you.

The purpose of this article is to highlight some ways of helping your spouse stay motivated while you pursue your dream (even if it is for the both of you, it's still your dream).

· Verbal Appreciation - Goes a long way... a very long way. A simple "Thank you, honey" can make it all worthwhile for him.

· Giving Him the Day/Night Off - Tuck was a tremendous help to me all through college and graduate school. If he asked me if I needed him on Saturday I knew he wanted to go fishing if I didn't. He helped out so much that I did whatever I could to make sure that he was able to go and do what he wanted to do. That may have included finding someone else to babysit for a few hours.

· Good Old Fashioned Sex - Last time I checked this still worked wonders. Men are always all about sex and if they save you time they are probably hoping (at least in the back of their mind) that some of that saved time might end up finding its way into the bedroom. Hey - can't blame them for trying. (Just as a side note you really do want to make sure that you do make time for this part of your life. And a good time management plan will help you there.)

Download my free ebook about Time Management and Students where you'll find ideas for time management in several crucial areas where we all struggle. Also visit me at There Must Be A Better Way

Time Management and Students: Spend Time Learning Something Just Because You Want To

Too Often Our Time Management Plan

Is stunted simply because we suffer from brain damage due to too much learning that is not of our choosing. Don't get me wrong, I know you're in college to get a degree because you have an interest in a particular field but I want to talk about 2 different kinds of learning and the need for college students to have both simultaneously to stay mentally healthy.

As students we spend so much time "learning" what the college thinks we should learn. For our discussion we'll call that the non-engaged type. You obviously need this type of learning to learn your field and graduate.

In this article I'm going to focus on the other type...the engaged type and tell you why you should spend time learning something just because you want to. What I'm talking about is the kind of learning that has your mind fully engaged because you're so interested. It happens to me with 95% of the books that I read.

As a matter-of-fact, the only reason I'm reading a book is because I have an intense interest in learning more about that subject. If that particular book doesn't engage me that much, and quickly, but I still want to learn the subject matter I'll find a different author.

What I Mean By Not Fully Engaged

Is that it's no secret that students, many times, have trouble focusing on their textbooks while studying. That's because, while we may have an interest in the overall general topic of what we've chosen to study, specific parts of that topic may put us to sleep.

For instance, with psychology I had no interest, whatsoever, in the different theories, but that's a lot of what psychology is about...theories.

Boring!

And don't forget that while studying theories you, of course, learn about the people behind the theories. To me that was pretty boring too. So, even though I was spending a lot of time "learning," many times it wasn't anything I really wanted to learn.

Instead of the subject matter actually engaging my mind I had to try to make my mind engage.

If I had to try to make myself learn this stuff, how much of it do you think I would retain long-term.

That's Not My Definition of Learning.

What I mean by learning is that after even after reading my textbooks for several hours, sometimes until I couldn't focus and simply couldn't learn anything else from it, I'd take a short break (for my eyes) and eagerly grab one of My books...you know, the one I want to read...and settle back with my "treat."

There Are a Variety of Ways to

Learn. I personally, and obviously, do a lot of reading...and I do mean a lot...but you could do other things. You could learn from a video or from hands-on or a combination of the two. There are other ways too. Explore and give yourself permission to learn something you're not required to learn.

The point is that you should make a concerted effort because the old adage is true...what you don't use you lose.

If you follow this advice then your mind will be more refreshed for the next time you reach for those textbooks and if you're more refreshed then your time management plan will be easier to follow.

Want more tips on how to get your crazy life under control? If so, then download my free ebook about Time Management and Students where you'll find ideas for time management in several crucial areas where we all struggle. Also visit me at There Must Be A Better Way