Time Management Project

At this point in the course, you probably have developed some living patterns that include your school workload. Perhaps you have cut out social time or a second job. Maybe a spouse or someone else close has taken on some additional responsibility to help you better prioritize your time. Regardless of the changes made to date, and others that will follow, success in this program depends in part on how you manage your time.

Each student will prepare a time audit. This assignment will be challenging, but helpful, as it will require you to keep track of your time in 30-minute increments. All it takes is a little discipline. You need not stop in the middle of something to record your time – simply wait until you finish the activity to record the event and time spent. However, do not wait until the end of the day to fill out your log sheets. That would somewhat diminish the point of the assignment, as the whole point is to record activities and times as close to the time period as possible. You will also need to assess each time/activity as to your effectiveness in completing the task and/or staying focused.

Do not obsess with this assignment. Perfection is not required, only completion of this audit and related narrative, recording the approximate time periods of daily activities, both typical and atypical.

Again, only you and the professor will see your results (unless you wish to share with your classmates).

To complete the audit, do the following:

– Audit how you use time for five (5) consecutive days (Monday-Friday or Tuesday-Saturday), in 30-minute increments.

– Use the Microsoft Excel Log (tab for each day) to keep track of your activities.

– While recording approximate time periods is allowed, try to record the times as close to the time period each occurred.

– Complete the log to include an assessment of your time spent and/or effectiveness in completing the noted task(s) noting any comments or observations (see next instruction).

– At the end of each day, complete an approximately 150-word summary of all the day’s activities with a focus on special events.

– Do this each day, for five (5) days in one (1) submission. The sheet has a tab for each of the five (5) days. The narrative should be written in an MSWord document. All five (5) days should be combined into one document, just be certain each day is properly identified.

– Craft a narrative (600 words) to submit with your time log that addresses how you believe the DSL program will affect/is affecting your current work/life balance. You should address how you plan to integrate the workload of the DSL into your current work/life balance noting any identified challenges or opportunities.