Time management is a very important skill to conquer. Good time management will not only help us to succeed in our nursing profession but also in personal lives. No person can be everywhere at once and get everything done at one time, we have to manage our time wisely to accomplish what needs to get done and to not be overly stressed or deprived. BUT…I believe that having good time management isn’t something you are just born with, it’s a skill that is practiced over and over until it is conquered. I feel that the first step in conquering great time management starts in nursing school, we have to learn how to manage so many things: homework, studying, family, friends, work, relaxation, and personal time. In just our third week as nursing students we are learning how to apply time management to our homework load. We need to assess what homework is all due and when, then delegate out how and when we are going to get this all done and on time. We all have families and most of us love spending time with them but we become so focused in our school work that we forget to make time to see or talk to them. It’s important to manage family in to our schedules because they are the ones that will always be there for us. FRIENDS…As nursing students I’m sure we will all struggle with time management with our social life. Friends have been a big part of our lives, always going out and having a good time: lunch dates, weekend getaways, nights out, movies, and hanging out. We have to lean that we can’t do everything, we can’t make it to every lunch date or weekend getaway or night out when there is homework to do or an exam to study for. It’s going to be a struggle at first which I am sure we are all learning right now, but there’s a reward at the end. Learning to time manage our social lives is important, do not exclude yourself from everything, but learn how to work it in to your busy schedule. We don’t want to fry out brain completely so I feel that personal time is something that needs to be managed. Homework, studying, family and friend are all important, but learning how to time manage time for ourselves is what is going to keep our heads on straight, keep us looking at the finish line. Now this isn’t going to be easy, we can’t snap our fingers and magically have excellent time management, we are going to manage wrong every once and a while: realize we haven’t spoken to mom in a week or went out when we should have studied or forgot to time manage personal time. Time management is learned and with practice will be a conquered skill. Conquering great time management in nursing school will make us all excellent time managed NURSES.
