Team Charter

What major obstacles (such as personal, professional, academic) do you need to overcome to be successful in school? What are some ways you might work around these challenges?

One of the major obstacles that I need to overcome to be successful in school is to learn how to balance school and work. I have not had to work in the past while attending school but with the position of the economy currently I had to pick up a full-time job to help my family with financial obligations. Obtaining a degree is very important to me so I have to try and adjust to balancing both. Another obstacle that I need to overcome to be successful in school is procrastination. I am a very hard-working person but somehow I often times wait to the last minute to do things. I think I work well and best under pressure. Some ways that I may work around the challenges of balancing school and work and procrastination would be developing better time-management skills, setting specific hours to dedicate to schoolwork, and also developing a routine which makes things more easy to remember.

What are two specific time management strategies you can use to help you maximize the use of your time during this class and reach your educational goals?

Time management is very important to being successful in reaching goals and also for class. According to Carter et. al 2007, "successful time management starts with identifying your time-related needs and preferences". It is important to know what works well with you. Everyone is different so what may work well for one may not work well for another. Two specific time management strategies that I could use would be to frequently use a personal digital assistant (PDA). I have a PDA and it is very helpful in making to do lists and scheduling important deadlines. My PDA even lets me set reminders along with an alarm that gets my attention. Another time management strategy I could use would be to prioritize assignments. Prioritizing assignments could be helpful in focusing energy and attention on the assignments of higher priority first. If I know an assignment will require a lot of energy an effort then I would want to focus on that assignment first so I could be alert and fully focused. Overall, I think the use of a PDA and prioritizing assignments could be essential in helping to maximize time during class and also reaching educational goals.