Helping students learn skills to help with time management and make better use of tools around them were among the topics discussed during the student success workshop “Time Management and Google Calendars” on Monday.
The workshop was hosted by American River College instructional assistant Cheryl Howell in the Learning Resource Center.
ARC student Robert Liu attended the workshop looking for advice.
“I saw the flyer on campus … I thought I could use some helpful tips on helping me balance my time,” Liu said.
Howell explained that one of the first things a student should do, if they are concerned with not having enough time to study, is to look at his or her every day schedule, create a good study load and do not take on more units than you can handle.
“Write down what you are doing during your day. How many outside obligations you have, difficulty of your classes, and how focused to school work you want to be help in making a study load,” Howell said.
A “study hole” was suggested as a way to fit in some light reading or create questions, based on the material, that you can take with you between classes.
“Those 15-30 minute time holes in your day can be the most powerful time for you to get that extra study time you need,” said Howell.
Howell mentioned that the best “tool” a student can use is creating a personal calendar to help stay on track and handed out planners during the presentation.
She also recommended Google Calendars, an online app, to help students with managing time.
ARC student Dianne Tuthill said she plans to utilize the app to help organize her schedule.
“I’m going to be using the Google Calendars from now on. I had no idea you could make multiple calendars in just one place,” Tuthill said.
Other general tips were to organize assignments by when they are due and create a place where a student can take time out of his or her day to stay distraction-free.
Howell stressed that finding certain points during the day for down time is very important for student success.
“Once you create a schedule, you are prone to stick to it,” said Howell.
