It can be a tough time trying to adjust to college life. The Center for Student Excellence (CSE) aims to help freshmen, and even upperclassmen, better their skills for dealing with college and life in general. The CSE sponsors weekly academic success workshops, and each workshop focuses on a specific aspect of college preparedness.

Most of the workshops are held twice a week to make them more accessible to students with busy schedules. The most recent workshops, which focused on effective time management, were held this past Tuesday, Aug. 23 and Friday, Aug. 26. The workshops were presented by Academic Advisor Mindy Notariano.

 Learning how to manage your time is an important skill for freshmen and upperclassmen alike. Students were asked what problems they had with managing their time. Common answers included, “I just don’t know how to manage my time,” and, “I procrastinate a lot.”

Students were given a time management assessment form to complete. It contained a list of ten statements that referred to managing time effectively. Setting goals, using planners and to-do lists, long-term versus short-term planning, structured study time, scheduling social time and dealing with stress were some of the topics touched upon. Students were asked to review the statements and mark them with a rating of one to four; one being “no/rarely” and four being a firm “yes.”

Next, students were asked to write down their top five values in no specific order. Most commonly seen were sleep, health, socializing and religion.

“How does school fit into that top five?” said Notariano. “If it’s not important to you, it will be harder to focus on school.”

Notariano mentioned that it is important for students to make lists and pay attention to their syllabi and that they should anticipate crunch times to avoid being stressed out. Building up stress can affect you physically and mentally. Using time management tools like a planner can help you get into the groove of better time management and fight things like procrastination.

“It’s like creating a habit,” said Notariano. “Nothing happens overnight. It’s a lot harder to break a bad habit than it is to start a new habit.”

Students also filled out a “Where does time go” worksheet where they calculated the number of hours they spend each week doing things like sleeping, working, going to class, socializing and playing games. They then used those numbers to fill out a week-long time sheet to see where they could easily fill in study time.

“All the activities and hours that you spend, ask yourself, do they point towards your goals?” said Notariano. “You’ve got to be realistic about what you’re able to do and then set some goals.”

This week’s workshops will focus more specifically on study skills. The first one will be held this afternoon from 2-3:15 p.m. and will be presented by Academic Advisor Brad Bergeron. Notariano will present the Friday, Sept. 2 workshop from 10-11:15 a.m.

They will both take place in the Student Union room 228, which is upstairs behind the ballroom. More information on the workshops can be found by searching for the Center for Student Excellence on Southeastern University’s Web site and selecting “success workshops” from the right sidebar.