Time Management

By Devanshu Bajaj

Time management skill is the most important skill for an international student who studies at colleges or universities because most of the students who fails to manage their time properly suffer in college life and personal life, as the balance between them might get disturbed. Time management skills help to maintain a proper record for all our activities and help them to be completed on time. Some of such activities are meeting assignments deadline and balancing study and working.

Benefits of time management for International students –

• Proper balance between study and work
• Handling for difficult situations become easier
• Submission of assignments on time
• Low stress
• More free time
• Less effort
• Great opportunities

Source – https://www.wanderlustworker.com/how-to-effectively-manage-your-time/

A survey that our class did clearly shows that majority of international students spend between 5 to 10 hours on their studies per week. Percentage of these students are only 28.6% whereas only 7.1% of international students spend more than 20 hours per week on their studies. These statistics give a clear idea about the time managing skills of current international students. Teachers recommend that you spend between 6 and 8 hours a week on each class.

This graph shows how many hours international students spend on studying.

Future international students need to make up a proper schedule for how they are going to manage between study and work; a proper schedule needs to be made and followed accordingly. This will also help students to be successful in their life.

Here is a visual how international students can start managing their time. This is a basic image of how different tasks can be organized and student can save their time by doing so. When international student starts managing their time properly like this image, they slowly make their way to end, there will be less stress to cope with and students would not forget about dates and deadlines.

I also read an article called “First-Year College Students’ Time Use.” In this article author tells about the importance of time management to perform well in academics and maintain good academic performance. The author talk about “Self-Regulated Learning, Goal Setting, Learning Strategies.” He suggests students to create a schedule or a calendar that might help them in taking care or all the tasks they need to do. He further asks students to invest on themselves which means the international should take care of themselves and their health, as students need to work hard to make a balance between work and study but if student’s health is able to support students then it might affect student negatively in managing time and study .

Lastly, I would recommend students to visit KPU personally and attend events and different fairs that can help them in learning about the strategies of time management. Future international students can also meet KPU advisor or counsellors and talk about the problems they are facing after coming to Canada.

Students can start managing time by doing the following things –

• Creating a master Schedule

• Self-Regulated Learning
• Eliminate Distractions
• Use Checklist
• Get Organized
• Goal Setting
• Learning Strategies

Here are some links of KPU that can help international students in tactics of managing time –

1. https://www.kpu.ca/new-strategies-time-productivity-management-lern-mgmt-9001

In this link students get a brief knowledge about an online course provided by KPU for all students that can help them in time management. This course is divided in 4 units all which are related to time management skills.

2. https://www.kpu.ca/learningcentres/events/workshops/strategic-time-management-180919-o

This link is about the workshops related to time management skill. This workshop is also provided by KPU and it also available online.