Randy Pausch Lecture: Time Management
by Randy Pausch · Carnegie Mellon University
Recorded lecture delivered at the University of Virginia in 2007 by a Carnegie Mellon computer science professor. Covers goal setting, distinguishing importance from urgency, delegation, desk and file systems, and scheduling, using examples from academic and research work.
More resources on Time Management for Students
Forest App
A focus timer that grows a virtual tree while you stay off your phone and kills it if you leave. Using it builds enforced blocks of uninterrupted work and makes your distraction patterns visible over time.
Learning How to Learn
This course gives you easy access to the invaluable learning techniques used by experts in art, music, literature, math, science, sports, and many other disciplines. We’ll learn about how the brain uses two very different learning modes and how it encapsulates (“chunks”) information. We’ll also cover illusions of learning, memory techniques, dealing with procrastination, and best practices shown by research to be most effective in helping you master tough subjects. Using these approaches, no matter what your skill levels in topics you would like to master, you can change your thinking and change your life. If you’re already an expert, this peep under the mental hood will give you ideas for turbocharging successful learning, including counter-intuitive test-taking tips and insights that will help you make the best use of your time on homework and problem sets. If you’re struggling, you’ll see a structured treasure trove of practical techniques that walk you through what you need to do to get on track. If you’ve ever wanted to become better at anything, this course will help serve as your guide. This course can be taken independent of, concurrent with, or prior to, its companion course, Mindshift. (Learning How to Learn is more learning-focused, and Mindshift is more career-focused.) A related course by the same instructors is Uncommon Sense Teaching. To join the fully translated Portuguese version of the course, visit: https://www.coursera.org/learn/aprender To join the fully translated Spanish version of the course, visit: https://www.coursera.org/learn/aprendiendo-a-aprender To join the fully translated Chinese version of the course, visit: https://www.coursera.org/learn/ruhe-xuexi To join the fully translated French version of the course, visit : http://www.coursera.org/learn/apprendre-comment-apprendre
Solving the Procrastination Puzzle: A Concise Guide to Strategies for Change
A 128-page guide by the Carleton University psychologist who directs the Procrastination Research Group. Frames procrastination as short-term mood repair rather than poor scheduling, and gives implementation-intention and task-framing techniques students can apply to specific assignments. Reframes procrastination as an emotion-regulation failure, which reorganizes how a student interprets every 'I'll do it later' moment, and translates it into implementation intentions.
Procrastination, Deadlines, and Performance: Self-Control by Precommitment
Three experiments with university students testing self-imposed deadlines. Students who spaced their own deadlines outperformed those who set them all at the end, though externally imposed evenly spaced deadlines worked best. Shows why precommitment beats intention.
The Nature of Procrastination: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review of Quintessential Self-Regulatory Failure
Meta-analysis of 691 correlations identifying what actually predicts procrastination: task aversiveness, delay, low self-efficacy, impulsiveness, and low conscientiousness. Introduces Temporal Motivation Theory, giving readers a causal model rather than a tactic list.
A Crash Course in Student Time Management (Study Hacks)
Curated index of eight Study Hacks essays that together form one student time-management system: autopilot scheduling, fixed-schedule productivity, time blocking, a semester-end panic schedule, and the pseudo-work critique. Readers can assemble a working weekly system.