Making Time to Achieve Your Goals

Estimate your time with a time management calculator then identify and prioritize five tasks to accomplish in a week using a digital calendar to organize them.

Introduction

Students live busy lives with many goals to accomplish, responsibilities to juggle, and tasks to complete each day. Organizing and planning your time makes a big difference in your productivity, or how effective you are at completing your tasks, with everything you likely have going on in your life. Using organization strategies and digital tools, such as online calendars, allows you to access your schedule and make changes easily-no matter where you are.

For this assessment, you’ll continue to develop your digital proficiency and confidence, and you ‘ll add to your tech toolbox by developing the second skill of this course-organizing, planning, and effectively using digital tools at school, work, and home.

Students often have busy lives, with many goals to accomplish, responsibilities to juggle, and tasks to complete each day. Organizing and planning your time makes a big difference in being productive and meeting deadlines. Organization demonstrates how you have personal responsibility for the various areas and activities in your life, which not only contributes to lower levels of personal stress but also helps to demonstrate to employers that you are trustworthy and responsible. Using organization strategies and digital tools, such as online calendars, allows you to access your schedule and make changes easily-no matter where you are. Overall, the purpose of this assessment is to think about how you use your time and apply strategies to prioritize so that you can find time to get things done so you can succeed personally and professionally.

Assessment Instructions

Part I: Organize Your Time

1. Estimate realistic task completion times using a time management calculator. For the purposes of this assessment, use the Time Management Calculator to identify the time you spend (in hours) on each task
   • Note how the amount of time for tasks was estimated.
2. Prioritize six tasks split between the areas of academic, career, and personal family to accomplish in a week. Use MacKay’s blog post “The Everything Is Important’ Paradox: 9 Practical Methods for How to Prioritize Work,” to help you choose a strategy to prioritize the six tasks from 1 to 6.
   • You are also required to locate an article in the library about time organizing strategies.
     • Use the Skill Development Tutorials if you need help searching the library.
     • You may wish to use keywords related to the time organizing strategies from the MacKay blog post to guide your search.
3. Split these tasks between: Academic, Career, and Personal/Family. You should select two tasks for each of the three categories.
   • One of your two projected Career tasks is an in-town weekend retreat that your company requires you to attend. This will take up 6 hours on Saturday (9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 hours (9 a.m.to 1 p.m.) on Sunday. This may be difficult to add to your calendar since your weekends are generally taken up with other important engagements.
   • Explain the rationale that was used to determine the priority ranking of the tasks.

Part II: Plan Your Time

1. Use a calendar to organize tasks by priority. Choose a digital calendar. Consider Google Calendar, the iPhone calendar app, or Microsoft Outlook as options.
   • For each task identified above, add an appointment. Use the appointment\’s start and end times to block time for the task. Watch the video tutorial Using a Digital Calendar for help.
     • Remember, that your Saturday should include a 6-hour appointment and your Sunday a 4-hour appointment for your in-town work retreat as described above.
   • Include a detailed screenshot of the week. The screenshot should show:
     • The weekly view of your calendar-make sure all six tasks are visible. Add the screenshot to your assessment document. Watch the video tutorial Taking Screenshots for help.
2. Write a reflection piece. Structure the narrative around your aspects of your life and your business priorities. Organization strategies are important and qualify as something that professionals need to do. In your reflection address the following:
   • Explain the rationale for choosing a time organization strategy and how it informed your task prioritization.
     • Note which resource informed which aspects of the process.
   • Describe how the weekend in-town work retreat that you are required to attend impacted your approach to organizing your time.
     • Note how resources and critical thinking were used to overcome planning challenges related to the required work event
   • Reflect on you determined the credibility and relevance of your chosen library resource to support your task prioritization.
     • Note how specific aspects of the assessment were used to determine relevance.

Assessment Requirements

• Length: 2-4 double-spaced pages, not including the title page and reference page.
  • Make sure you are including a proper title page and reference page.
• Formatting: Clearly organize and display the information. Make sure screenshots are clear and added to your document.
• Written Communication: Convey clear meaning with minimal issues in grammar, usage, word choice, and mechanics.

Note: In addition to the scoring guide, your faculty member may also use the Writing Feedback Tool to provide you with feedback related to your writing.

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 2: Use digital tools and organization techniques to effectively create timelines and set priorities.
  • Estimates realistic task completion times using a time management calculator.
  • Prioritize six tasks split between the areas of academic, career, and personal/family to accomplish in a week.
  • Describe how a required work event impacted approach to time organization.
• Competency 3: Choose organizational strategies and digital tools to maximize one\’s productivity.
  • Use a calendar to organize tasks by priority.
  • Explain the rationale for choosing a time organization strategy and how it informed task prioritization.
• Competency 4: Integrate credible and relevant sources into coursework to enhance clarity and support claims.
  • Reflect on how credibility and relevance of a chosen resource were determined.
• Competency 5: Address assessment purpose in a well-organized text, incorporating appropriate evidence and tone in grammatically sound sentences.
  • Address assessment purpose in a well-organized text, incorporating appropriate evidence and tone in grammatically sound sentences.