What Are Some Common Home Time Management Problems for Nontraditional Students?

Question: What Are Some Common Home Time Management Problems for Nontraditional Students? Having spent many years as a nontraditional student I know that the following home time management problems are pretty common for the majority of students. So, if you're considering going back to college you may want to make sure you have effective solutions in place for the following problematic areas:

• Time Management in General
• Inadequate Planning of Meals
• Wasting Too Much Time Cooking
• Spending Too Much/Too Little Time Cleaning
• Not Having Enough Time for Family/Friends
• Not Having ANY Time for Yourself
• Not Having Adequate Time to Study
• Feeling Guilty
• Feeling Overwhelmed
• Getting Discouraged

Let's just lightly touch on each of these and how they can adversely affect a nontraditional student. Time Management in General I know of very few people… OK, actually NONE… who are already confident in the way they manage their time at home even before they return to college. Yet this is one of those make-or-break factors that will… without a doubt… determine your success in college. Inadequate Planning of Meals All too often the question of what's being served for lunch or dinner falls by the wayside as the student pushes the question down and promises to think about it "in a little while" or "as soon as I finish this chapter I'll figure it out." Sadly, many times what ends up happening is the car drives through a fast food joint or something is popped into the microwave. Wasting Too Much Time Cooking On a somewhat related note is the incredible amount of time wasted in the kitchen due to a lack of foresight. You're cooking a dinner each night without thought to saving any time in the future. Spending Too Much/Too Little Time Cleaning The time spent in this area is… rightly so… one of the first to get modified. If a nontraditional student keeps trying to keep the perfect house as she did before then there's a lot of potential study time being used. The flip side is that housework gets pushed to the side week after week after week. Not Having Enough Time for Family/Friends I'm sure you don't need a degree in Psychology to know this can cause problems down the road either in your marriage or in your relationship with your children. (For the record, I DO have a degree in Psychology and I'm telling you that it can.) While kids are resilient little creatures and can… for a while… subsist on future promises of time and attention, a parent being a nontraditional student is still a disruption is their normal lives. Not Having ANY Time for Yourself This is a big problem for some people. If you're the type… like me… who not only wants, but actually needs, time to yourself then not being able to have that alone time can affect not only you but everyone around you. You'll get cranky with your spouse and kids and likely have trouble focusing and staying motivated. Not Having Adequate Time to Study This is actually one of the top problems I hear. Since having adequate time to study is one of the main keys to your success in college then it makes since that the lack of it… or even the appearance of the lack of it… would be viewed as a huge problem of nontraditional students. You're so busy taking care of the house it seems you can't ever find the time you feel you need to spend studying. Feeling Guilty Guilt is a near-constant companion of all nontraditional students. You only have so much time and so many different tasks around the house… not to mention people… are vying for that same time. Feeling Overwhelmed Looking around at all that needs done in the house or just thinking about all the household tasks that you've pushed aside to be able to concentrate on studying, such as cleaning and laundry, makes you feel overwhelmed because you know you're going to have to face it all sooner or later. Getting Discouraged This is similar to feeling overwhelmed but discouraged is more like feeling that you'll never get your home time management under control. It may seem that things will always be this hard or this disorganized. You may get really discouraged from the messier-than-usual house. Adjusting to this new life takes some work… mental and otherwise… but avoiding the common problems of nontraditional students is possible.