Time Strategies

Time StrategiesBy: Maria Dawson

This checklist visual already makes me feel like I have completed something! This picture is from Pixabay. 

The first website I went to in hopes of learning some new effective time management strategies was: The Psychology of Checklists by Lauren Marchese. In her post, she took the word SMART and gave each letter its own meaning. The S is Specific M = Measurable, A = Attainable, R = Realistic, and T= Time-Bound through these 5 letters you should be able to get ahold of the small tasks you need to work on. However, I choose this website because I want to learn about why we like or do not like checklists according to psychology. Marchese attributes this to Dopamine or the neurotransmitter that makes us feel good. She says that whenever we are able to check something off as completed we realize dopamine making our bodies feel good and wanting to do it again. This explains why I look to keep a to-do list in every class as well as outside of class just to check stuff off fo it. 

The second website I choose to read some tips and strategies from was 3 Steps to Recapture Time by Joynicole Martinez. I wanted to read about this topic because I always feel like to do not have enough time to get everything I need to do as well as take care of myself and family. Martinez breaks her post into three different parts the first being, "RULE 1 – REFUSE TO YIELD YOUR 1ST 15-MINUTES" this first topic talks about how you should do critical tasks within the first 15 minutes of your day. She then goes into "RULE 2 – RECOGNIZE THE PRUNING SEASON" where she describes how important it is to declutter your life as well as "pruning" or resistance to successful execution. Her last segment is called, "RULE 3 – PRACTICE THE ART OF NO" and definitely a topic I struggle with because I want to make everyone feel happy. She explains the difference of when it is the right time to say "no" and when it is not. Instead of just outright saying "no" instead follow up the comment with another time you would be able to get the task completed for them. I think the main point of the post is to point the readers into a better understanding of themselves and not to show how to regain time back by first not giving too much of yourself up.