Many college students have other obligations beyond school such as work, athletics, and sometimes family responsibilities as well. This can be stressful and can lead to challenges with finding time for coursework. Learning online has many benefits, such as providing students with flexible schedules, however, many students fall behind or give up before finishing the class. When taking blended or online classes, you’re even more (than in on-ground classes) responsible for “showing up,” getting work done, participating in-class activities and discussions, and being responsible for your own learning.

It is especially important to approach your online class as you would a traditional class: Schedule time each week to log into your online class and work on assignments, just as you would schedule a time to attend a class in a physical space.

The Science of Productivity

Let’s start thinking about how you can be as productive as possible. As you watch this video on productivity, consider what the speaker has to say about some simple ways to manage your time more efficiently.

5 steps to managing your time

If you have difficulty managing your time, read, and apply the tips below to help you stay on task relatively stress-free.

1. Develop a schedule and stick to it

   Take a moment to think about how you spend your time. The thing to remember about your online classes is that you will need to train yourself to work every day on your courses. Develop a regular time each day to study and work on assignments. Online classes are not self-paced; you have due dates for assignments and trying to do everything at the last minute will only create more stress in your life and not help you learn. Plus, others in your online learning community are depending on you and your contributions to the course each week.  Waiting until the last minute may prevent other students in your course from meeting course expectations.

2. Keep a calendar 
   

   It is important to stay on task and be productive. In your calendar, enter in all your due dates. Estimate how much time you will need to complete your assignments and put some start dates in the calendar as well. From this, create a “to-do” list of your online coursework. Keep in mind you can add your own events and reminders to your Canvas Calendar to help you stay organized.  
   

3. Determine work order
   

   When you have a lot to do, it can often seem overwhelming to decide what you should be working on. Consider prioritizing tasks in the following way to help:
   
   

   • High priority
     

     Projects and assignments that are due within the next day or two. Topics and work that are most difficult for you. Do the work in this category first while you are the most mentally focused.

   • Medium priority
     

     This includes work that is due later and larger research projects. Divide large projects into smaller chunks and schedules that work evenly over time so it’s completed by the due date.
   • Low priority
     This includes work that is not in the above categories and work that you find easy to complete. Save these items for last so you can still concentrate on them when you are less focused.
     
     

4. Take breaks; Use short focused bursts of work
   

   Try the Pomodoro Technique (Links to an external site.) of doing short bursts (typically 25 minutes) of work followed by a break. The idea is that the frequent breaks help to improve mental agility and allow your work-time to be more focused. An online site that can be used like a Pomodoro timer is http://www.moosti.com.

5. Automate what you can
   

   Between school, work, and other sports and hobbies, it may be tough to find time to get anything else done. But there are other things that still need to get done. Use Google Calendar (Links to an external site.) to schedule and remind you of your appointments, car maintenance, birthdays, etc. Google Calendar can be set up to email or text reminders so you don’t have to keep checking your calendar. You can import your Canvas Calendar to your Google Calendar (Links to an external site.) to keep all of your academic and personal obligations in one spot. There are a number of other methods to help you organize your time and send you notifications of important dates. Sites like Remember the Milk, Microsoft Outlook (Links to an external site.), and even reminders on your cell phone if you have one.