Time Management Mind Map: Student Guide

How to Manage Time as a Student

Do you keep a calendar?

Is it organized by subject, activity, friends and family, or season?

Is yours hand written in a beautiful leather bound planner or are you a technocrat and believe that a digital calendar is the only way to organize your day?

When asked how to offer time management tips for students across elementary, middle, and high school, hands down my top three recommendations are calendars, timers, and color coated post-it notes. After twenty years of teaching, tutoring, and college planning, I have found that basic supplies and strict adherence to organizational processes support student time management most effectively.

When I work with high school juniors and seniors throughout their college process, one technique is to organize their list by application type (early action, early decision, regular decision, and rolling) and then code their deadlines by color:

green are the first applications due typically for rolling admissions schools

yellow are those due around the turn of the season (10/15)

orange are the applications due later in the fall (11/1)

red are those required by December and into the new year.

With every email I send, there are action items to be completed by our next meeting.

Building a Time Management Mind Map for Students

Years ago, I began to employ my own strategies which helped improve my work flow. Modeling this behavior became the backbone of how my students take on their processes independently. Not only does this practice reduce the stress of what, when, and how work can be tackled, but forms a routine that is adapted by each user to make any large task much more manageable.

For students across all grade levels, I always revert back to their planner. For students who struggle with day to day tasks, ensuring that they have color coded post-it notes that span each weekday and one for the weekends can help further organize their work flow (think Green Monday, Yellow Tuesday and so on).

Once a student has a white, cork, or chalk board to line up their process, they can pull the tab to mark its completion. These notes can also be transported in a planner or journal and the same color coding can be applied to digital calendars as well.

With that said my best example of a digital time management tool is what I personally use. My husband is a volunteer fireman so any related events are denoted in a red calendar, our dog is dark brown so his calendar helps us stay on top of his appointments, and I match the school I am working with to its related calendar.

If students were to adopt calendars that coincided with their history, English, math, science, foreign language, and elective courses, they can set up digital reminders with alerts about what task is due. If they need a two-factor authentication system to ensure assignments will be completed, I recommend that students follow up with a written calendar and post-it notes to set physical reminders of what is already in their online calendars.

Time Management Strategies that May Help

In terms of spending your time on a singular task, I recommend the use of kitchen timers to set limits. When I personally fall down the rabbit hole of research, writing, editing, or developing new materials, I must set time limits for myself or at the very least reminders to get up and move.

For students, time management can come in the form of setting limits on their social media use, writing down a to do list in half hour increments, and setting timers to stay on track in targeted focused work. Technology is obviously very helpful in completing work, but makes it equally as distracting because of access to so many distractions.

What other supports can students use to remain on time? When having to tackle a great deal of novel reading, I recommend the use of audio books to help enrich reading and encourage students to move while they listen. This practice helps support daily movement and fresh air, but offers students the opportunity to absorb content in a new way to increase focus and processing.

So, Why is Time Management Important for Students?

This discussion of time management skills and one’s overall organization are really just a component of one's executive functioning. The frontal lobe helps govern the workflow by managing time effectively, paying attention, being able to switch focus, planning events, and remembering details.

These are skills that can be fostered over a lifetime making those who struggle more prone to missed assignments, misfires in communication with teams, or unable to make all the events they intend. By incorporating visual aids like post it notes and calendars, using a step-by-step approach to break down long term assignments, prioritizing tasks, planning out homework days before due dates, and setting time limits, students can grow their executive functioning skills and gain more success in managing time efficiently. Get help with time management!