Affective Issues: Time Management (Drop the Ball Activity) by Suzanne Uzzilia

Note to Instructor: This assignment gives students an opportunity to practice time management by learning how to prioritize daily tasks.

Assignment:

This course asks you to complete many tasks over a short period of time. I recognize that many of you have other responsibilities outside of school that may make it difficult for you to complete all of your assignments. This assignment will help you to evaluate what tasks are most important and to plan your time accordingly.

Figure 1. Artist Tyler Feder illustrates all the plates she feels she has to keep spinning in her life (another way of imagining all the balls that need to be juggled).

Brainstorm: Take 3-5 minutes to make a list of all of the tasks you have to do tomorrow. Don’t worry about the order. Include everything related to school, work, and home, and try to be as detailed as possible.

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Watch: Watch the video “Manage Stress and Time Management by Dropping the Ball” (3 minutes). The speaker, Tiffany Dufu, is the author of Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less.

Manage Stress and Time Management by Dropping the Ball (lifehacker.com)

Note: Write down any big ideas from the video. You may want to watch the video a few times to decide which ideas are most helpful to you.

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Revise: Return to the brainstorming list you made of tomorrow’s tasks. Based on Dufu’s ideas, which of these are “balls” that you would be able to drop? Cross out those tasks.

Schedule: Schedule the remaining tasks into this calendar.

8am
9am
10am
11am
12pm
1pm
2pm
3pm
4pm
5pm
6pm
7pm
8pm

Edit: How did the remaining tasks from your brainstorming fit into this calendar? Does the organization of this calendar make sense to you? Make changes so that the calendar reflects the way you think about your day and the tasks you have included can be accomplished in the amount of time scheduled.

Reflect: Write 3-5 sentences reflecting on your experience with doing this activity. How is this different from your regular daily planning? What was difficult about it? What was helpful about it?

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Teaching Writing at LaGuardia

Affective Issues: Time Management (Drop the Ball Activity) by Suzanne Uzzilia

Assignment:

Brainstorm: Take 3-5 minutes to make a list of all of the tasks you have to do tomorrow. Don’t worry about the order. Include everything related to school, work, and home, and try to be as detailed as possible.

Watch: Watch the video “Manage Stress and Time Management by Dropping the Ball” (3 minutes). The speaker, Tiffany Dufu, is the author of Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less.

Note: Write down any big ideas from the video. You may want to watch the video a few times to decide which ideas are most helpful to you.

Revise: Return to the brainstorming list you made of tomorrow’s tasks. Based on Dufu’s ideas, which of these are “balls” that you would be able to drop? Cross out those tasks.

Schedule: Schedule the remaining tasks into this calendar.

Edit: How did the remaining tasks from your brainstorming fit into this calendar? Does the organization of this calendar make sense to you? Make changes so that the calendar reflects the way you think about your day and the tasks you have included can be accomplished in the amount of time scheduled.

Reflect: Write 3-5 sentences reflecting on your experience with doing this activity. How is this different from your regular daily planning? What was difficult about it? What was helpful about it?

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