Northbridge Grade 11 and 12 Leader Mr Callum reveals his secrets for time management

Northbridge Grade 11 and 12 Leader Mr Callum reveals his secrets for time management Students in the IB programs are busy students and at Northbridge International School Cambodia we are no different. In fact I would venture to say with our great school culture and community our students are even busier! What with not only classroom school work but also the great CAS opportunities we offer and the large array of sports, that all students want to be involved in. This being the case, time management is crucial for our students.

Students in the IB programs are busy students and at Northbridge International School Cambodia we are no different. In fact I would venture to say with our great school culture and community our students are even busier! What with not only classroom school work but also the great CAS opportunities we offer and the large array of sports, that all students want to be involved in. This being the case, time management is crucial for our students.

I had the opportunity last week to present some ideas on time management to the Grade 11s during advisory time. I would like to share them with the whole Northbridge community, especially those in the Diploma Program and MYP. I base my organisation off of four simple things:

1. Getting Organised
Using a diary, Secondary planner or some system that is your own to record things you have on, what is due and what is next, is imperative to being on top of your time.

Getting organised also covers making sure things are in order whether that's spending time organising your notes or even just cleaning up you desk or folders at the end of the day. The more organised you are the more time you save.

2. Be Balanced
This stage of your life at school is a big priority, but don’t be afraid to let your cultural, sporting, spiritual and social events take some forefront as well.

I always start my weeks planning off with the things I am really looking forward to in terms of sports and social events. My reason being some of these I could probably give up if I needed to.

3. Prioritise
This could be part of being balanced but in reality it is not. Sometimes we see prioritising in our school and work life prioritising to be doing what’s due now and how can we get it done generally to the detriment of other things. We want to work away from that in that if we organise early, balance our self and schedule then prioritising should be simple.

As an example: if I know I have a research project due in four weeks I start it the week I get it at that stage its a low priority, but I start it. What my goal is to by the fourth week when it is the fourth week and it's high priority I actually have to spend less time on it than I did when it was low priority.      

4. Start
The hardest thing most times is to start. Whether it is to start organising yourself, start balancing your self or start prioritising your work.

It’s the start that gets most people stuck and the worst thing about it is you will have to start again every week, every day, and sometimes every class. But if you put your head down stop talking and start doing the starting becomes easier and easier.

Being great at time management isn’t an overnight thing and like anything you will have failures, but out of those failures will come something extremely rewarding and beneficial. You will see what I mean when you try it.