Learning Experience Three
Time Management
I
have always been one to give myself high remarks when it comes to time
management. Throughout grade school and high school, I always got my work done
on time. Whether my work was at home, at school, or at my job, I was always
pretty prompt and on top of things. Even last year as a freshman, I displayed
pretty good time management skills. This semester, though, things have changed.
I have let all of the distractions of college get ahold of me and detract from
my time management skills. This has been frustrating, but it is something I
will learn from and correct.
Looking
back at my last 20 years, its fairly clear now just how easy I had it. Sure, I
displayed the ability to manage my time well on a consistent basis, but the
thing is, I really didn’t have all that many things to balance. As I’ve gotten
older, the number of things I am involved with has drastically increased and
the amount of distractions around me has increased as well. Being a college
student is fun, but it can also be stressful when you can’t manage your time. I
am learning from this right now and next semester I will put changes into
place.
There
are some things that stand out to me as the root causes of my poor time
management. First, my living situation. I live in the Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity
House. Living in the house is naturally going to be a rowdy and messy time, but
I didn’t account for just how rowdy
and messy it really is. There are always friends and friends of friends in the
house and at just about every turn there is another opportunity to get
distracted. Because of this, and a few other reasons, I have decided to move
out of the house and live in the GrandMarc second semester. By cutting down on
friendly distractions in the house, I believe I will be better able to manage
my time and focus my attention better on my academics, on working out, and on
pursuing other ventures on and off campus.
The
second big problem I’m having with time management is just the sheer number of
things I have to keep up with these days. I’m a pretty involved guy. I’m in a
fraternity, I do volunteer work, I’m a Neeley Fellow, and starting next
semester, I’m a VP of the Neeley School’s Consulting Club. My activities just
keep piling on. I need to find a way to either cut back on the amount of things
I’m involved with or at least set up a schedule that better supports myself. I
need to learn not to overreach my boundaries and stretch myself too thin.
The
third, and most easily correctable, problem I’m having with time management is
my own personal lack of focus. Let’s face it; freshman year at TCU is pretty
easy. In fact, I thought it was really easy. My high school back in Nebraska
was far more challenging than my freshman year here. After freshman year, I had
the mindset that every year would be that easy. I came into this school year
with that mentality and it has not paid off. I am having one of my worst
semesters for grades I’ve ever had. The mentality that I brought this year
worked well freshman year and allowed me to easily manage my time. But now,
things have changed. I cant continue to manage my time like I did as a freshman
or success will be hard to come by.
I
have learned a lot from the poor time management skills I have shown this
semester. I know I have a lot to fix, but the good news is I’m still young here
at TCU and have a long time to correct these issues and learn from them. I’m
glad I started to notice these problems early on, otherwise my next two and a
half years might not have gone as smooth.
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