What do frogs, tomatoes, and a past US President have in common? Time management. Why is this the topic in the week leading into spring break? Because spring break is often a time when students evaluate their searches and decide they want to do something different. You may be one of these students.
Here are advice, tools, resources, and calls to action you can use to manage your search with a focus on time management. Scroll to the end for a new coaching appointment type for the opportunity to examine your natural strengths and how you can apply them to manage your search with more ease.
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Time management examples and frameworks
Below are examples, frameworks, and articles to consider for your own time management. Look for what will work best for your individual style and circumstances; each Engineering Master’s student will take a slightly difference approach.
Take action and experiment with one or two techniques to see what provides you with the consistency you need to manage your time and get things done.
Eat the Frog
Start your day with the most challenging item on your task list. It may be something you’re dreading and/or more likely for you to procrastinate in completing. By completing this item first you set your day up to be a little easier.
Here’s a February 2025 article from WRAL’s TechWire sharing the Eat the Frog technique and five other strategies for managing your time.
Pomodoro Technique
This technique will help you manage your day with more consistency and help with focus. The idea is to work for 25 minutes and take a five minute break. Once you’ve done four sets (the pomodoro), you take a 20 minute break.
If you are someone who has twenty tabs open and jump from one task to another without completion, the Pomodoro technique may help you focus in on specific tasks you need to accomplish.
Learn more about it here in an article from Atlassian. Added bonus: the article has 13 fundamentals of time management and a time management quiz for those who like quizzes.
Eisenhower Matrix
With this technique you can prioritize what you need to do in order of importance and urgency. A four-quadrant chart helps you accomplish this and the example to the right can give you an idea.
For those trying to close out tasks and projects before break, this can help you determine what needs to be done now, and what can wait.
Learn more about the steps to use this time management technique from the Atlassian article mentioned above.
Bonus: If you revisit the WRAL Techwire article, you’ll see an approach called “Time Block Like a CEO.” Many of you have team projects and responsibilities that include others. If you feel like your schedule is always a mess and you want to have more control, this may be a technique for you to investigate.
If none of these approaches or articles work for you, consider using AI to determine a few time management strategies to experiment with. Again, the focus on what will promote consistent behaviors where you manage your time and get things done.
CliftonStrengths Coaching
Are you looking for ways to manage your search better and with more ease? A CliftonStrengths appointment is an opportunity to talk about what you naturally do well and how to apply it to your search, career, and life in general. Learn about the three CliftonStrengths Coaching appointments in Handshake.
