Tips for effective time management Try different strategies then - - PDF document

BTFO 2015 Professor Carolyn Sharp

Tips for effective time management

Try different strategies – then trust what works for you.  block out reading time for each class and write into an actual weekly schedule  begin planning for major papers earlier than you think you need to; this ≠ writing the papers super-early, which can be a mistake  if you use a family calendar, put crucial deadlines on it, so loved ones are aware and can support you  give some thought to organization of materials, even if you don't normally care about organizational structures or lists

• make a Word folder for each course
• simple & excellent: "sticky notes" on computer desktop
• advanced: Outlook Tasks list with a variety of color-coded categories

 "Be fully present at school when at school; be fully present at home when at home" –advice from Judy Fentress-Williams, then a Yale doctoral student with two small children, now a professor and administrator at Virginia Theological Seminary. The principle: FOCUS FULLY. If you try to handle everything all the time, you'll yield to the tyranny of the immediate, you'll be constantly distracted, and you will not work effectively. Bonus: mindful focus can be refreshing.  "Set a timer to mark the end of the day" –advice from Mark Lester, current Yale doctoral student. The principle: HONOR YOUR LIMITS. We seldom finish everything we set out to do in a given day. Rather than flail haplessly for hours after you are too tired to work effectively, decide on a time when it is okay to be done for the day. You'll begin the next morning rested and rejuvenated.

 3 – 2 – 1 – GO! If you have multiple projects clamoring for attention, try timed sessions. I use a meditation chime on my phone for 25-minute blocks:

3

• n urgent projects

Joshua commentary or Translating Alterity paper

2

• n important projects

Translating Alterity paper or Boer review essay

1

• n pragmatic tasks
• - edit 2 essays -- evaluate mss for JBL and BINS
• - revise REL 500b syllabus -- update Jeremiah bibliography

GO!

reward yourself with a productive activity that gives you JOY and is unrelated to any deadline

homiletics literary theory poetry

Strategies to maximize your learning

• use iAnnotate PDF or a similar program to take notes on PDFs of articles
• note-taking by hand is significantly better for retention than typing notes;

use highlighting during review & write key words (by hand) in margins Use symbols in note-taking!  "this yields the logical conclusion that" "the historical result was that"

≠

"this need not imply" "this is not the same as saying" "this is not fairly characterized as"



"change" "transformation" "the Trinity"

Xy Xn

"Christianity" "Christian"

• skim strategically when you cannot do all the reading
• take paper drafts to the YDS Writing Tutor, Brad Holden – the earlier

deadline you'll meet in order to get papers to Brad will prepare you well to meet professors' actual deadlines

• consider study groups for the big introductory courses
• good for morale, but groups take time
• helpful for extroverts who process out loud and thrive on immediate

feedback, lively exchange; not necessarily ideal for introverts who need to focus and are unsettled by rapidly moving dialogue

• sharing wisdom can mean shared errors if a peer gets something

wrong, so use study-group notes as supplementary while still doing your own work