Managing time can be a difficult skill to learn for college students, due to the busy lives most college students live. To help students learn to efficiently manage their time better, the Academic Success Center at California State University, Stanislaus (Stan State), hosts several events about how to manage their time better.

On Feb. 23, the Academic Success Center held one of their events, a “Time Management” workshop and seminar, for Stan State students. The event aimed to better understand how effectively college students are using their everyday time, and provided tips to improve time management.

The Time Management workshop, conducted by Gustavo Jiménez and Erlynn Johnson, focused on some concepts about time management skills students should be aware of. Topics like: barriers people face with time mismanagement, rewarding oneself, and they also had the students participate in activity called “pie of life,” were all discussed during the one hour event.  

Jiménez warns students that the barriers that are caused by time mismanagement are often, “unclear objectives, an inability to say no, procrastination, and poor health”.

The concept of rewards was also mentioned during the workshop. A person should set short-term rewards to give themselves by choosing something to work towards to and deciding how the reward will be earned.

Stan State students like José Salas (junior, History) were intrigued by the fact that short-terms goals can be beneficial.

“Yes, you need a few rewards in the middle of the goal for it not to be a monotonous routine,” Salas said.

The Oregon State University has created SMART goals to teach students on how to create more effective and achievable goals. The goals have to be Smart, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound to be considered SMART goals.

The workshop introduced “The Pie of Life,” an activity in which students had to fill twenty-four slices of a pie, which represented an hour of the day.

“The Pie of Life” served as a visual representation of the different things that students do in their everyday lives. The most popular time-consuming activities were sleeping, going to school, and using social media.  

Jackie Clifford (junior, Biology and Chemistry) attended the event and believes that the “Pie of Life” helped her see how to manage time her wisely.

“The ‘pie of life’ activity was a good idea because it shows how much time is spent on a certain activity,” Clifford said.

Stan State students who may have questions about the event, or how to manage their time wisely can visit the Academic Success Center located in the Mary Stuart Rogers building Monday through Friday or visit their website to help you manage your time wisely and be successful at Stan State.