TCC Talon’s Natalia Areas sat down with Professor Melissa Scalzi to discuss some time management tips that may help students become more efficient. Professor Scalzi is the Assistant Professor of College Success and Career Planning at Tallahassee Community College.
NATALIA
How can students learn to manage their time more effectively?
PROFESSOR SCALZI
“Time management can help students succeed in their professional lives because building habits now will create habits that students could use in their future careers. In school, students start developing fundamental soft skills needed in the professional world like being on time and turning things in on time. If students do not start creating habits now, or if they do not develop strategies to help them with their daily tasks, they might struggle in the professional world.”
NATALIA
Are time management skills helpful for students to prioritize and follow deadlines?
PROFESSOR SCALZI
“Priority management skills are necessary to follow deadlines because if you do not set what your priorities are distractions can easily come in, you might not even have a goal to work towards. Prioritizing, understanding what it is that you are working towards, maybe keeping constant in mind what are you giving up in order to be in school right now…could be a motivator to help you set your goals and to accomplish them.”
“As far as following deadlines, that can be difficult for people. But just in life, in general, it’s important to develop some sort of strategy, like keeping a calendar or setting reminders on your phone. Some people make sure that when they are in class, they are using their time wisely so that they know what the deadlines are; if you are not paying attention you can miss [something] important.”
NATALIA
What do you recommend to students for them to control stress and avoid procrastination?
PROFESSOR SCALZI
“Procrastination is a coping mechanism to avoid feeling anxiety, guilt, or depression. Having techniques to avoid procrastination helps control stress because rather than leaving things for later and creating a stressful situation, people deal with things right away. When it comes to procrastination , it is easy when students have deadlines because the panic sets in and motivates them to get things done; without deadlines, it will be just a never ending cycle of procrastination.”
NATALIA
Why do people fall into learning behaviors?
PROFESSOR SCALZI
“People have different learning preferences, but recent studies have shown that people learn in a variety of ways. People are not just visual learners or auditory, we learn through a combination of methods. It is important to have an idea of what you are learning preferences are because you certainly can control the method in which you are learning. Everybody in the class has a variety of preferences, so it is difficult for an instructor to accommodate everybody. Really, it is about taking ownership of your education and not limiting yourself to only one learning style.”
“You are not doing yourself any favors if you are just coming to class and not taking any notes. You hear the information but you are not taking notes, so it is helpful if you take time after class to rewrite your notes.”
