Professor Interview - Essay Example

I am interested in finding out the about the specific strategies that help college students achieve proper management of their time, life and scarce resources. The current task will require me to create a plan to meet the emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs of college students. The information from the interview will be beneficial to college students because at the end I will prepare a PowerPoint presentation to teach college students to teach them about time management, self-management, and learning strategies.

Concerning time, what do you understand by the phrase “time management”? Professor : Human beings are required to live in two time dimensions at once; that is, the present and the future (Forsyth, 2010). People need to manage their time effectively if they desire to realize their goals as scheduled. This inevitably creates a conflict between focusing on the pressing demands of the day while creating some space to make strategic plans for future. The concept of time management deals with planning time utilization in such a manner as to perform effectively and efficiently all planned activities.

Allen (2005) argues that the fundamental objective of time management is to organize strategically a person’s activities in order to increase the possibilities of achieving the intended objectives. Time is money; therefore, time that is not used well translates into wastage of critical resources. Owning a watch does not promise a lasting solution to time management defects; however, people need to understand time management techniques in order to counteract the barriers to time management. Student : What are the primary strategies that college students can apply to ensure proper management of time at their disposal?

Professor : Time management techniques that are used frequently include time budgeting, daily planner and time log. I will explain to you what each of them means and show you how students should apply them to ensure they do not waste their time in unnecessary activities. Felton and Sims (2009) defines time budgeting as the setting of standards for spending the available time effectively and efficiently. College students need to budget for their time since it helps to minimize chances of time wastage.

Levin (2007) proposed the procedure for accomplishing time budget incorporating dividing the available tasks into unit projects, assigning priorities to project units in order to determine the level of urgency, deciding the amount of time to be spent on each project unit and spreading the available time over specified days required to complete the task. The second strategy of time management is the daily planner. The daily planner enables college students to plan for their daily activities in order of urgency.

Time planners should be based on realistic deadlines to avoid unnecessary frustrations. The third strategy is the time log. The time log is a chart that allows a student to keep track of the time spent on each activity by connecting both regular and unexpected activities of the day (Felton & Sims, 2009). A review of the time log at the end of the day enables students to trace the loopholes for time wastage and eliminate them accordingly. Time management techniques are foundations for both personal and organizational prosperity.

Student : What are the most common barriers to time management that college students need to avoid in order to stop time wastage? Professor : The crucial part of any time management endeavor is identifying potential barriers to