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Monday, February 15, 2016

Please Welcome Special Guest Jose Luis Landeros

The Importance of Time Management
By Jose Luis Landeros


There is nothing worse for a student in this world than to have a due date rapidly approaching and being nowhere close to actually finishing the assignment. I'm really sure this has happened to at least 100 percent of all students. As students, we have multiple responsibilities, which may range from homework, chores, sports, jobs, internships, or many other activities. Commitments such as these may ultimately reduce the time we give to what is, or what should be, our most important mission: doing well in school. Roberto Gomez Bolaños once said, "One can recover money, love, prestige, or any other lost thing ... except time." So is there a realistic solution to making the most out of our time? If there is, it has not reached my ears. Rather than a single solution though, there are strategies we can take.

Many times I have heard that our generation was served on a silver platter, referring to the technological advances that exist today. And this may be true. Nowadays, we have so many possibilities at the reach of our fingertips. We have reliable Google, effective YouTube, and an uncountable number of apps such as Khan Academy that can ameliorate our understanding of something and help us learn new things. At this point you may be asking yourself what this has to do with time management, right? Well, as you may already know, everything has its pros and cons. The Internet is not an exception. It all depends on how we decide to use this tool. For example, games and social media are entertaining; no one can doubt that, but everything has limits. Being addicted to these tools can obstruct us from being able to manage our time. Believe it or not, these things are deviating us from what is really important, our education. Let's try to minimize distractions. Make separate time for studying, and make that time a priority over gaming and social media.

We are referred to as students, and it is not a misnomer. Our main job is to study. That is why we should always prioritize our academic assignments over everything else. In order to do that, we must learn to better organize ourselves. For example, using to-do lists, agendas, etc. There are many apps for use on our tablets and smartphones that can help with this; and for those of us that prefer, there are agendas and calendars available in print as well. These kinds of organizational tools and strategies may not be easy to get used to; however, they have the potential to greatly increase our efficiency. After all, we all have the same amount of time: twenty-four hours a day (one thousand four hundred and forty minutes to be exact). Make the most out of your time. Managing our time efficiently can be vital in determining how well we do in school. Always be cognizant of due dates and plan ahead.

There are many other strategies, methods, or ways of making the most of our time, but all require personal discipline and none are easy. Perhaps, managing your time wisely may be one of the hardest tasks of being a student. Especially if you are a senior, with due dates approaching hazardously and inconspicuously. So make schoolwork a priority over entertainment and take advantage of technology without getting distracted by it.



Jose Luis Landeros is a senior at Coachella Valley High School. He currently serves as an intern for Congressman Raul Ruiz and plans to study engineering in college.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Jose, I totally agree with you in the importance of time management. I too suffer form distractions and get lost in the infinite black hole that is the internet. It takes an tremendous amount of self controls to stay on tasks. Some of the worse cases is when I have to work on assignments on the computer. It takes forever for me to finish anything because it is so easily to get sidetracked and divert my attention. At time I find it works best for me to first write things down on paper then transfer it typed to the computer. At first I was reluctant to do this because I thought it would take longer to write the subject twice, however, I find this system is effective. This way I take a shorter amount of time on the computer and reduce the risk of distractions.

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  2. Hello Jose, i completely agree with you on the importance of time management and also how important technology is. I think we can all agree that we all, at some point get too distracted with technology, and I have to admit it takes a whole lot of courage to turn those distractions off. I personally work better paper and pencil, than doing all my work on my computer. I also believe, like you mentioned, that extra curricular activities can also distract someone from doing their schoolwork. Me personally, being a part of 7 clubs makes my high school experience fun, but also hectic. I sometimes tend to leave school work to the end, instead of putting it before anything, as a priority.

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