Before you read about managing your time and using it better, first answer these questions…

Simply tick all the statements you agree with:

1. I am often late for school.
2. I could do everything if I had more time.
3. When I am at school, time goes very slowly, when I am at home, it simply runs.
4. People have less time nowadays.
5. I often discover in the morning that I didn’t do some homework.
6. I spend so much time thinking what to do that I don’t have time to do it.
7. I wish I could get up earlier but I can’t.
8. At the end of the weekend I panic because I realize I didn’t fulfil my plans.

Well, if you agree with five statements or more, you can’t organize your time well – and this text is for you! There are some rules of better time management. If you follow them, you will be able to do more in less time and you will be more successful!

Rule 1
Everybody has the same amount of time
Trivial, but true. We all have 24 hours a day – not more and not less. We have different duties, different extra-activities and classes, different schedules, it takes us different time to get to school, we sleep long or short hours. This is different. But the basic 24 hours is like a quantum given to everybody. You can only spend this time differently.

Example
You can notice that Kasia has more activities that Ola and it takes her more to get to school, but she saves more time. She is a very busy person and sleeping seven hours only is not really good for a teenager. On the other hand, Ola seems to sleep too much and spend too much time on showers and make-up. These are their choices, but you can definitely have some balance in your duties and necessities to have more time for yourself. Make such a list and check if this is what you really want.

Rule 2
Elimination rule
Time is very often a priority. This means that unless it is either necessary or really important for us, we should eliminate the most time-consuming things from our lives. Forever. So if you have an English teacher who lives in the outskirts and he is not the best or the most handsome teacher in the world, change him into another one – living on your housing estate. If you sleep ten hours, try nine – it’s enough! Don’t spend long hours in a shopping mall unless you really love it. If you can’t remember what you spend your time on, note it down during two-three days. You might not have known that you spend two hours in the bathroom everyday!

Example
Ola decided to sleep an hour less and to have a shower in the morning instead of a long bath. She saved 1,30 hours. She started going to swimming pool twice a week before school and she read more in the evening.

Rule 3
More for less
Now concentrate, because it is probably the most important rule of all. There are priorities in your life, things that must be done, because if you don’t do them, you will be punished. Or things that will give you some real benefit. Make a list of things to do, and give them a grade – from 1 (unimportant things) to 6 (priorities). Then order the list so that priorities go first and start from the priorities! That’s the secret. The point is that you often sit down and start thinking what to do and you actually start from the first thing that comes to your mind, and then you do not prepare for the maths test which should be the priority today. You also should assess the time needed for each activity.

Example
English essay (1h) – 2 (the teacher is really nice, if I ask her, I can bring it a day later)
Polish essay (2h) – 5 (the teacher will be collecting them tomorrow)
Biology (1h) – 4 (there is a chance for a short test)
Cleaning the room (30min) – 4 (mother angry)
Maths test (2h)– 6 (I have lots of bad grades)

Let’s say you have four hours only – it is late already. If you didn’t take priorities into consideration, you would write two essays and learn biology. The result will be: English: 4, Polish: 5, maths: 1 and angry mother because you didn’t clean your room and because you failed the test. If you take the priorities into consideration, you will get: Maths: 3 (very happy!), Polish – 5, English 5 (you wrote a better essay because you had more time next day). You decided to clean your room (because you spend only 30 minutes and you make somebody happy!) and to read the biology lesson (no time to learn it really). Your mother was happy and there was no Biology test.

Rule 4
Satisfaction rule
Remember that you should never limit too much the time for what satisfies you and makes you happy. Try to save some time for you – time you will be able to spend on what you want, even if it is the most stupid thing in the world!

fulfil – wypełnić
quantum – kwota
balance – równowaga
priority – priorytet, sprawa najważniejsza
outskirts – obrzeża
estate – nieruchomość
shopping mall – centrum handlowe
punish – karać
punishment – kara
grade – stopień