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Running Head: TIME MANAGEMENT

What Every New Freshman Enrolled at Salt Lake Community College Should Know aboutTime Management (Procrastination, Critical Thinking and Self-Discipline)
Melissa, Nania, Martin
Paul Lerdahl
Salt Lake Community College
May 6, 2015

Running Head: TIME MANAGEMENT

Procrastination
Many college students struggle with the ability to balance course work, job, family and
other activities. Time management is very important, however, many students do not realize how
valuable time really is. Carl Sandburg explains that Time is the coin of your life. It is the only
coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other
people spend it for you. We can learn to be responsible and manage our time by overcoming
procrastination and stress, as well as using our critical thinking skills to help us to be more
disciplined.
Procrastination occurs when we do the easy jobs first and avoid the hard ones, even
though we know we are supposed to complete the task. This is a long term habit that is very hard
to get out of. The biggest problem is not that we are not accomplishing the task, but that we are
doing it poorly (Sherfield, 2014).
There are many different reasons as to why people procrastinate. Some prefer to do things
that they enjoy rather than doing what needs to be done. Others are perfectionists and feel that
they cannot complete the task until they feel that their work is the best that it can be. Other
people are worriers and get weighed down by the task and overwhelmed by the responsibility.
Some are very shy and avoid working groups which hinders them from completing the
assignment. Others are easily distracted and do not want to be told what to do. Some have to be
under extreme pressures to start the task, and will often wait until last minute to complete it
(Ferrett,2013).
Self-assessment is the key to understanding why we procrastinate, and will help us figure
out what is holding us back. After we determine the cause of our procrastination we can create

Running Head: TIME MANAGEMENT

solutions that can hopefully turn into habits, if we apply them consistently. We can avoid
procrastination, but we first must create strategies as well as have a desire to actively do these
strategies (Ferrett,2013).
One strategy that will help us avoid procrastination is to plan daily priorities and set
goals. Additionally, we must write our daily goals and be specific, and make sure that we have
enough time to complete them. These goals can be a simple to-do list, and once we are finished
we can check them off. Physically checking off our daily goals not only keeps us organized, but
also gives us a sense of accomplishment (Ferrett,2013).
The second strategy is to break our projects into smaller tasks. A large project can seem
very overwhelming and promote further procrastination. However, we can break this project
down into small steps rather than cramming it all in the night before. Additionally, we need to be
specific in what tasks needs to be accomplished that day. For example, as soon as the teacher
presents the assignment, choose a topic that day, the next day do research, and continue each step
until you are satisfied with your paper. Also it is important to read all the material and notes, as
well as clarifying any questions before starting the project (Ferrett, 2013).
Another important strategy is to focus on one thing at a time. Concentrating on one task
for a short amount of time, is more effective and helps you to have a positive attitude. Telling
yourself that you are going to really focus and concentrate on the reading for 15 minutes
increases your willpower and confidence. On the other hand, telling yourself that you are going
to study for 3 hours makes it seem more overwhelming and impossible to complete the
assignment (Ferrett, 2013).

Running Head: TIME MANAGEMENT

The last strategy that we must do is to tackle difficult tasks during our high- energy time.
Do the most important thing first, while you have the most energy and concentration. Once the
task is completed you will feel a sense of accomplishment and confident about finishing the
other tasks. When your energy drops take a short break and then return to the assignment
(Ferrett, 2013).
Procrastination affects more than our school work, but ultimately creates stress, which
influences our physical and emotional health. Stress does not happen to us, we cause it upon
ourselves when we do not plan our day, and as a result we become overwhelmed with the tasks
that we have to do.
Stress physically damages our bodies by destroying the functions of the organs as well as
causing muscle pain. Muscle pain usually occurs in the back and shoulders, which also causes
headaches, spasms in the esophagus, posture problems, asthma, tightness in throat, chest pain.
Through research it has been proven that stress over a period of time, can affect the brain by
releasing Cortisol, which is very toxic and can damage parts of the hippocampus, which controls
memory and learning. Learning to manage time and stress is a important key in improving our
memory (Sherfield, 2014)
However, we can learn to cope and deal with the daily challenges by, becoming attuned
to your body and emotions, develop hobbies, and creating a balanced life. With these techniques,
we can learn to have more of an optimistic outlook, and re-channel our energy as well as be more
productive.
The transition to college forces students to become more independent, which can be very
stressful. We need to first acknowledge these emotions and recognize the physical and emotional

Running Head: TIME MANAGEMENT

symptoms of stress. It is important that we allow ourselves to feel such emotions for a short time,
but we must learn strategies to help us cope and pull ourselves back together (Ferrett, 2012).
Developing hobbies can also help reduce stress and add meaning to your life. Many get
satisfaction from, sports, crafts, or reading ( Ferrett, 2012). Doing activities that you enjoy will
help you to cope with your stress and can also be a way to reward yourself when you are done
with a difficult task. Although, it is necessary to recognize the balance between work and play,
and we have to decide which activities help you achieve your full potential. A good way to
balance our lives is to set limits on, work, demands from others, and study; but remember to
reward yourself as well (Ferrett, 2012).
In order for us to be successful in life, we must value our time as well as manage our
stress. We can avoid procrastination and stress by first being aware of it, and then taking the
necessary steps to overcome it. These steps will help us live more simply as well as change our
attitude so that we can handle difficulties.
Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking is an important part of any plan to be successful in life. Without Critical
Thinking you might make a decision on an option that ended up turning out to be a mistake. You
might then regret it and wonder if the other option would have been a better choice. When you
Critically Think about something you weigh out all the options and see which fits you the best so
you can succeed. In our Essentials to College Study class we were given a text book to read,
this text book had many helpful tips on how to make your life easier and how Critical thinking
may help you in your many years in school. Some of these reasons are:
- Focus on relevant issues/problems and avoid wasting time on trivia.

Running Head: TIME MANAGEMENT

-Gather relevant, accurate information regarding finances, goals, decision making, relationship,
civic responsibility, and environmental issues, to name a few.
-Understand and remember facts and organize thoughts logically.
-Look more deeply at problems, analyze their causes, and solve them more accurately.
-Develop appropriate and meaningful study plans and manage your priorities assist in your
problem-solving skills.
-Help you control your emotions so that you can make rational judgments and become more
open minded.
-Produce new knowledge through research and analysis
-Help you determine the accuracy of printed and spoken words.
-Assist you in detecting bias and determining the e relevance of arguments and persuasion.
(Sherfield, 2014).
I being a student this semester have learned that Critical thinking does strongly help with
a lot of these issues. For example, Critical Thinking helped me realize that I needed to prioritize
my time on what I needed to get done verses what I wanted to do. I wanted to work my full time
job as well as taking all the classes I took this semester. But realized I didnt have enough time to
take the classes, go to work for eight hours, come home and do the homework for all my classes
then manage enough sleep to feel refreshed enough to do it again.
At first I didnt critically think about it and said I would just give up more sleep for my
homework. At first it went well and I was able to juggle and manage all I needed to do. But over

Running Head: TIME MANAGEMENT

the course of two weeks I started to feel the toll of not having even sleep. My grades were
starting to drop doing to lack of sleep and being too tired to participate. My work life was
affected as well. I wasnt able to pay attention to the job I was doing due to being too tired and
my performance was not as best as it usually is. So I had to critically think about the problem. I
had to dig deeper into the problem, analyze the causes and solve the problem more accurately. I
realized I needed to cut back on either classes I was taking or the amount of the hours I was
working at my job. I then weighted out what was more important to me at the time, the education
I was receiving or the money.
So I decided to cut back on hours at work and go part time. After doing so, I was then
able to manage to sleep enough to so I was refreshed and able to pay attention in class as well as
complete the homework that was assigned. I brought up my grades to a good standing that I am
happy with and learn everything that I needed to learn from the class. I wouldnt have been able
manage to do any of this if I didnt crucially think about the problem. And I wouldnt have been
able to do it fast enough if I didnt learn how to use these critically thinking methods I learned in
my class.
So conclusion to this, its important to critically think about all the possible problems and
solutions before making a decision on what you might do. You must find the best for you so later
you do not regret it.
Self-Discipline
Moreover, as time management is crucial for your ultimate success at SLCC. It can be
managed by overcoming procrastination by planning out your day to day items, learning how to
be a critical thinker is severely important when making decisions but making sure that we are not

Running Head: TIME MANAGEMENT

emotionally driven but really thinking about the choices presented intellectually. It is then
important to know how to be self-disciplined, to keep to what you have already planned to do
when trying to avoid procrastination in your daily life. We know that life can be stressful and that
you cant take a new life-style on in one day. It has to be a day to day process, which is called
Self-Discipline. The word discipline comes from the Latin word meaning, to teach. Therefore
self-discipline is really about teaching ourselves (Waitley, 1997) ( Sherfield, 2014). Teaching
ourselves how to live and actually get things done sound easy, but it is harder than you think. For
example, when I first started at SLCC I thought I was all ready to take on the world, be an adult.
Time management is easy at first, but then you feel like why you may be doing this in
the first place, or that you have time tomorrow to do it, it will take too long to do right now, I
DONT HAVE ENOUGH TIME!, etc. Things just spiral down pretty fast and you can feel that
you really dont want to do anything unless it was urgent. I found that needed to take a step back
and learn what was important to me or learn Coveys Time Management Grid shown below in
figure 1 to help to self-prioritize myself in the essentials and non-essentials in my everyday
college life. To deciding whether to hang out with friends or to study. To get a reading
assignment done before class to know the material or reading a outside class book. These are
important decisions to make but the most important thing to remember is to be self-disciplined to
the goals you may have already set for yourself.
Goals that should be SMART goals, Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic and
Time-bound. The goals that you set should reflect what you truly want to accomplish here at
SLCC. For example you may want to have a goal to get straight As for the upcoming semester.
So as to help set that goal you would have to set a series of short term goals to reach your
ultimate goal. Goal setting itself is relatively easy-it is the personal commitment and self-

Running Head: TIME MANAGEMENT

motivation that requires detailed attention, hard work, and unbridled passion (Sherfield, 2014).
Whatever the goal may be we need to be committed to it and not let any distraction come our
way. Learning to be self-disciplined, teaching ourselves to be the best at what we really want to
be. The most vital step toward reaching your goal is making a personal commitment to yourself
that you are going to achieve it and then committing all of your possible resources toward the
completion of that goal (Sherfield, 2014).
As to concede with keeping goals, another key to staying self-discipline is knowing,
Self-discipline is really about four things: making choices, making changes, employing your
will power, and taking responsibility (Sherfield, 2014). A representation can be shown in figure
2.
The first being making choices. Choices make a big part of our everyday life. To when
we will get out of bed, to deciding if we will go to class or not, to deciding to work on
homework, to deciding if you will listen to those who speak to you or lectures and etc. They are
important, and our choices are what make us who we truly are today. Whether we like who we
are today or not it all came to be from daily choices. Though as struggles arise a good guideline
to follow is as follows;
-1. Think about what you are doing, before you do it (will it be worth your time?)
-2. Avoid rash decisions (dont go for the spur of the moment, be a critical thinker)
- 3. Do not over-think everything (sometimes a solution is at the tip your tongue you just need to
simplify your thoughts to find it)
-4. Trust yourself (the only person you can trust to want the best for you is yourself)
("How to Make Good Choices").

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Running Head: TIME MANAGEMENT

Now as choices become somewhat easier, we need to learn how to make the appropriate
changes to make the old bad habits into new good habits. Habits that will not only affect the
present time but the future you have as a college study at SLCC. As you make the initial changes,
you may find that you run into obstacles, but know that for a change to truly be a change is when
you feel you have mastered it. Making your weakness into strengths and not burdens. Changes
can include; watching less TV during week days, going to parties only when your homework is
done, waking up on time to make it to class on time, eating healthy as to relieve stress, take time
every day to plan for the next day. All of these and more will help for you to be more effectual in
succeed in college. Again it all depends on how willing you will be disciplined your set
restrictions to yourself.
Third is it important to learn how to employ your willpower. Being able to take the lead
of your own life and not letting anything else get in the way. You have the ability to empower
yourself to get things done. No one can do this for you (Sherfield, 2014). And if this is true then
you have the ability to do anything you set your mind to, even to having the ability to be time
managed. Your willpower can also be something that can be related to strength. How much
strength do you have and are you willing to give all you go if threatened? Or do you have the
fortitude to eat the frog first? The frog is a simple relation to learning how to manage your time
and eating or doing the hardest things first. Brian Tracy said to do the nasty thing first because it
will probably be the nastiest thing you do all day. Whether we dont know if we can do it now,
we better learn soon but your willpower is another key staying self-disciplined.
Fourth is to be ready and willing to take responsibility for all you intend to do and what
you actually do. To be able to accept whatever consequences of your actions and what behavior
you will have in response. A sign of wisdom and maturity is when you come to terms with the

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Running Head: TIME MANAGEMENT

realization that your decisions cause your rewards and consequences. You are responsible for
your life, and your ultimate success depends on the choices you make- Denis Waitley, author
and coach (Helping People Take Responsibility). In correlation taking responsibility also
requires a lot of attention. Where we have to be constantly engaged with making our situation
better and not letting the time get away with us.
In conclusion, self-discipline is very important in the overall scheme of being able to be
time managed. Though it is first imperative to know how to get out of the habit of
procrastinating. Learning how to be prioritized, take it one thing at a time, and break a larger task
into smaller tasks. It is also necessary to be a critical thinker, to know truly what you want to do
and if it will logically work. Time-management is not something to take lightly, it is of utter most
importance and will truly be what helps you have a successful time at Salt Lake Community
College. To be able to cope with all the challenging courses and not have the worry have NOT
HAVING ENOUGH TIME.

Works Cited

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Running Head: TIME MANAGEMENT

Covey's Time Management. (2015, April 17). Retrieved from USGS.gov:

http://www.usgs.gov/humancapital/documents/TimeManagementGrid.pdf
Ferrett, Sharon K. "Manage Your Time and Create a Healthy Mind, Body, and Spirit."
Peak Performance: Success in College and Beyond. Eighth ed. McGraw-Hill, 2012.
91,93, 354-355. Print.
Helping People Take Responsibility: Encouraging Accountability. (n.d.). Retrieved May
5, 2015, from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/taking-responsibility.htm
How to Make Good Choices. (n.d.). Retrieved May 4, 2015, from
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Good-Choices
Robert M. Sherfield, P. G. (2014). Cornerstones for Community College Success.
Taylorsville: Pearson.
Tracy,B. (2011,August 17.) Eat That Frog & The ABCDE Method. Retrieved May
5,2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKOMTZ7PPLg

Figure 1
Urgent
Quad:1

Not Urgent
Quad: 2

Urgent &

Not Urgent &

Not

Important
Quad: 3

Important
Quad: 4

Important

Urgent & Not

Not Urgent & Not

Important

Important

Important

Figure
2