I would say the best way to describe efficient time management is when you don't feel a sense of stress and that you are finishing with just a little bit of time left. In some cases, it is better to just get done early and not worry about things, but in most cases that means you rushed through and could have done a better job. By discovering the best way to manage time (both for work and break periods), it'll help with the flow of classes and projects. With the younger ages, it'll help them not to be overwhelmed with the project, and with the older ages it will help them stay focused and use time wisely.
I like to think I balance my time, but I find that is not such the case when looking back on how I have been treating my free time. Where I've written in my planner that I should be working on things for classes and getting things ready, I just laze about doing little to nothing. Then I remember what my high school mentor teacher told me--"Once you leave the school, you don't need to be thinking about it.". I need to remember to take time for myself, but not spend every hour of downtime being a potato, which I often am. I'd say that the best tip I have in relation to any time management is a metaphor I heard from my orchestra teacher in high school: "If you're on a train with a million dollars, and a dollar bill flies out the window, then you don't jump off the train or stop it for that dollar. You stay on with the rest of the money and keep going.". By this, he meant that when we're going along that we shouldn't stop for every little thing along the way or if we forget something. Prioritize what's important and then keep going and don't little minor or trivial things slow you down. If you let yourself get stopped by the little things, then you're not going to progress and will get buried by the workload. There are times when things need to be let go or dragged behind a little bit until you can pull them in again. Otherwise, you will keep struggling and get nowhere. Outside of that, one tool that has been useful is creating a spreadsheet for the students to plan out how they're going to spend their time. That includes day by day, color coded planning, and daily viewings to make sure the students are on track. This helped me to see where they should be at, where the general class is supposedly at, and how I can help them when they're ready. Of course, these are not always 100% accurate, but they do a good job of putting things into perspective for the students.
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December 2019
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