Budgeting Your Time

E NGINEERING C AREER

2.2 Budgeting Your Time

Each of us has the same 24 hours in a day, and there is only so much that a person can do on an average daily basis to accomplish certain things. Many of us need approximately 8 hours of sleep every night. In addition, we all need to have some time for work, friends and family, studying, relaxation and recreation, and just goofing around.

Suppose you were given a million dollars when you reached your adulthood and were told that is all the money that you would have for the rest of your life for clothing, food, entertain- ment, leisure activities, and so on. How would you go about spending the money? Of course, you would make reasonable efforts to spend and invest it wisely. You would carefully budget for various needs, trying to get the most for your money. You would look for good sales and plan to buy only what was necessary, and you would attempt not to waste any money. Think of your education in a similar manner. Don’t just pay your tuition and plan to sit in class and daydream.

Your education is an expensive investment, one that requires your responsible management.

2.2 Budgeting Your Time

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A student at a private university went to her instructor to drop a class because she was not get- ting the grade she wanted. The instructor asked her how much she had paid for the class. She said that she had spent approximately $2000 for the four-credit class. The instructor happened to have a laptop computer on his desk and asked her the following question: If you bought a laptop computer from a computer store, took it home to install some software on it, and had some difficulty making the computer work, would you throw it in the trash? The student looked at her instructor as if he had asked a stupid question. He explained to her that her dropping a class she had already paid tuition for is similar in many ways to throwing away a computer the first time she has trouble with some software. Try to learn from this example. Generally speak- ing, for most of us learning is a lot of work at the beginning, and it’s not much fun. But often, after even a short period of time, learning will become a joy, something you work at that raises your own self-esteem. Learning and understanding new things can be downright exciting. Let us examine what you can do to enhance your learning during the next few years to make the engineering education you are about to receive a fulfilling and rewarding experience.

Let us begin by performing some simple arithmetic to see how efficient we might be in using our time. With 24 hours in a given day, we have, for a one-week period, 168 hours available. Let’s allocate liberal time periods to some activities common to most students. When following this example, refer to Table 2.1. Notice that the time periods allocated to various activities in this table are very generous and you don’t have to deprive yourself of sleep or relaxation or socializing with your friends. These numbers are meant only to give you a reasonable starting point to help you budget your time on a weekly basis. You may prefer to spend an hour a day relaxing during the week and use the additional social hours on weekends. Even with generous relaxation and social time, this sample allows 68 hours a week to devote to your education. A typical engineering student takes 16 semester credits, which simply means about 16 hours a week are spent in the class- room. You still have 52 hours a week to study. A good rule of thumb is to spend at least 2 to 3 hours of studying for each hour of class time, which amounts to at least 32 hours and at most 48 hours a week of studying. Of course, some classes are more demanding than others and will require more time for preparation and homework, projects, and lab work. You still have from 4 to 20 hours a week in your budget to allocate at your own discretion.

You may not be an 18-year-old freshman whose parents are paying most of your tuition.

You may be an older student who is changing careers. Or you may be married and have chil- dren, so you must have at least a part-time job. In this case, obviously you will have to cut back

TABLE 2.1 An Example of Weekly Activities

Activity Required Time per Week

Sleeping: (7 days/week)⫻(8 hours/day) ⫽ 56 (hours/week) Cooking and eating: (7 days/week)⫻(3 hours/day) ⫽ 21 (hours/week)

Grocery shopping ⫽ 2 (hours/week)

Personal grooming: (7 days/week)⫻(1 hour/day) ⫽ 7 (hours/week) Spending time with family, (girl /boy) friends, relaxing, playing

sports, exercising, watching TV: (7 days/week)⫻(2 hours/day) ⫽ 14 (hours/week)

Total ⫽100 (hours/week)

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Hour Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

7– 8 Shower/ Shower/ Shower/ Shower/ Shower/ Extra sleep Extra sleep

Dress / Dress / Dress / Dress / Dress /

Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast

8 –9 CALCULUS CALCULUS Study CALCULUS CALCULUS Shower/ Shower/

CLASS CLASS English CLASS CLASS Dress / Dress /

Breakfast Breakfast 9 –10 ENGLISH Study Intro. ENGLISH Study Intro. ENGLISH Grocery OPEN

CLASS to Eng. CLASS to Eng. CLASS shopping HOUR

10 –11 Study INTRO. Study INTRO. Study Grocery OPEN

Calculus TO ENG. H/SS TO ENG. Calculus shopping HOUR

CLASS CLASS

11–12 H/SS Study H/SS Study H/SS Exercise Relax

CLASS Chemistry CLASS Chemistry CLASS

12 –1 Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch

1–2 CHEM. Study CHEM. Study Intro. CHEM. Relax Relax

CLASS Calculus CLASS to Eng. CLASS

2 –3 Study CHEM. Study Study Intro. Study Study Study

H/SS LAB H/SS to Eng. H/SS English

3 – 4 Study CHEM. Study Study Study Study Study

Calculus LAB H/SS Calculus Calculus Chemistry H/SS

4 –5 Exercise CHEM. Exercise Exercise Exercise Study Study

LAB Chemistry Chemistry

5 – 6 Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Relax

6 –7 Study Study Study Study Relax Relax Dinner

Chemistry Calculus Calculus Calculus

7– 8 Study Study Study Study Study Study Intro. Study

Chemistry Calculus Calculus Chemistry Calculus to Eng. Calculus 8 –9 Study Intro. Study Study Intro. Study Recreation Recreation Study

to Eng. Chemistry to Eng. Chemistry Calculus

9 –10 Study Study Study Study Recreation Recreation Study

English Chemistry English English English

10 –11 Relax/Get Relax/Get Relax/Get Relax/Get Recreation Recreation Relax/Get ready for bed ready for bed ready for bed ready for bed ready for bed TABLE 2.2 An Example of Weekly Schedule for a Freshman Engineering Student

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in some areas. For example, you may want to consider not taking as many credits in a given semester and follow a five-year plan instead of a four-year plan. Depending on how many hours a week you need to work, you can rebudget your time. The purpose of this time budget example is mainly to emphasize the fact that you need to learn to manage your time wisely if you want to be successful in life. Every individual, just like any good organization, monitors his or her resources. No one wants you to turn into a robot and time yourself to the second. These examples are provided to give you an idea of how much time is available to you and to urge you to consider how efficiently and wisely you are allocating and using your time. The point is that budgeting your time is very important.

With the exception of a few courses, most classes that you will take are scheduled for 50-minute periods, with a 10-minute break between classes to allow students to attend several classes in a row. The other important reason for having a 10-minute break is to allow time to clear your head. Most of us have a limited attention span and cannot concentrate on a certain topic for a long period of time without a break. Taking a break is healthy; it keeps your mind and body working well.

Typically, as a first-term freshman in engineering you may have a course load similar to the one shown here:

Chemistry (3) Chemistry Lab (1)

Introduction to Engineering (2) Calculus (4)

English Composition (3)

Humanities /Social Science electives (3)

Table 2.2 is an example of a schedule for a freshman engineering student. You already know your strengths and weaknesses; you may have to make several attempts to arrive at a good schedule that will fit your needs the best. You may also need to modify the example schedule shown to allow for any variability in the number of credits or other engineering program requirements at your partic- ular school. Maintain a daily logbook to keep track of how closely you are following the schedule and where time is being used inefficiently, and modify your schedule accordingly.