by Scott Cawfield
School of Business
Centennial College

Time and Stress Management in Studying Economics

Many students complain about the length of time it takes to read and understand economics, and to do assignments. In some subjects, the reader can develop a flow very easily, jot down only a few points, and use them later for review purposes. I am not so sure that this is the case in reading economics. In order to really understand the subject, economics students must go beyond the basic text to study formulae, graphs, tables, and possibly some additional material on applied issues and controversies. Students have reported to me that it takes them five to six hours, or longer depending on English comprehension skills, just to read effectively one chapter of the text. Don't be hard on yourself for this, just schedule more time for the subject and follow the helpful tips provided below.

Unfortunately, as you complete your economics homework you may also be aware that you have work to do in other courses, and things to do in your personal life. You may have to submit an organizational behaviour report, do a statistics assignment, read a few more chapters of consumer psychology, attend sixteen hours of classes, get ready for that business planning mid-term exam, send that birthday card to Dad, play some hockey or do some swimming at the recreation centre, and have a little "down-time" to chat with your friends.

To help you deal with these demands on your time, here are seven useful time management and stress-busting strategies.

1. Get a time planner and use it every day! Before each week begins, use your planner to schedule your immediate priorities and future important events. You need a monthly calendar to plan for things coming up a few weeks or months later, such as assignments, mid-term examinations, or major quizzes. Use your planner to set overall goals and objectives, to remind yourself of commitments, to schedule key events, and also to assess where your hours are going, especially if it is becoming apparent to you that you need to use your time more carefully.

2. Set annual, monthly, weekly, and daily goals and objectives, and prioritize them. Setting long-term and more immediate goals and objectives will help you achieve them because you are aware of progress, or lack of it, at all points. Also, you will enjoy life more, largely because you have built into your schedule time for yourself. Staying well ahead of commitments for which you have to be prepared will vastly reduce your stress level. Overall goals and long-term objectives are things like "Achieve a B+ or an A in Economics 220," or "Graduate from York University's Bachelor of Business Administration Program by June, 2003." Objectives that are more short-term include, "Finish all my assignments this year on time, and achieve a minimum of B+ on all of them," "Improve my fitness level by participating in three sports this semester," or "Improve my English grammar skills this semester." Setting goals and objectives involves recognizing the opportunity costs of wasting time such as chatting on the computer too much or spending too much time on your athletic or social development. The cost could be forfeiting your year, especially since certain schools and professional organizations require a high average for continuation or admission to their programs. You can prioritize in a number of ways, but here is one system. Use a PRIORITY A NOTATION for the most important activities in your life—preparing assignments, attending tutorials, or studying for exams. Use a PRIORITY B NOTATION for routine activities—shopping, cleaning, exercising, or travelling to college or university. Use a PRIORITY C NOTATION for activities you want to do but can easily reschedule—social phone calls or going out for an evening.

3. Don't procrastinate or spend too much time on any one activity. Be completely straightforward about your goals, objectives, and priorities, and stick to them, even if friends complain. You have made some clear decisions about your future, even if they have not. A time management author once calculated that we can accomplish better than 80 percent of what we write down and become committed to seeing accomplished. If you want to accomplish 20 percent or less of your goals and objectives, don't write anything down.

4. Don't be too ambitious! You need to be ambitious to succeed, but trying to study for ten hours without breaks when you're under pressure may be too much for you. Part of keeping a planner is getting to know how you work most effectively. You may find out that you are efficient in studying or writing only to the third hour of continuous work. If that's the case, schedule two or three two-hour blocks of study, and take up to one-hour breaks to walk, watch TV, or chat. Also, a blockbuster day of ten hours of work could make it impossible to function effectively the next day, just when you had to give that presentation in Business Planning

5. Be an active learner. A study technique that is increasingly becoming important is to be an activist in your study habits. Some students spend seemingly endless hours staring at a book—this is not learning! Learning is active: Look for the study objectives and highlight material where the author is really answering the question posed in the objective or is providing summary material. Try some of the end-of-the-chapter material, which applies the material to issues, exercises, and problems. In some schools, you can do practice test questions from a computerized test bank available in the computer lab. Or, if you are studying economics using some Pearson texts, you can access the book specific Companion Website. There are links to these sites through this website.

Use the material related to your particular text. This could be a very valuable use of your time, since you will have a chance to test your knowledge base. If you find that you are having difficulty studying or reading and comprehending information, stop into the counselling/student services/career services department of your college or university, and ask them about personal assessments or special seminars. If you tap into the right resources, any such deficit can be overcome.

6. Learn to say "No" to unreasonable time demands. Drop optional courses that don't fit with your overall goals. The fitness club will still be there in late-April, when you can unwind after all your exams are over. Chatting on the Net may be a colossal (and costly!) waste of time! Watch the phone too; it can be a huge time-waster.

7. Be careful about part-time work commitments. Currently, more students are concerned about the rising cost of post-secondary education, and may need to work in order to pay for it. Or, they may be interested in having practical work experience on their resume. For some, the number of hours worked is about equal to the number of hours they give to their college or university work. You can make $1,000 a month working at Tommy's Sports Store, but is this work worth it if the real cost of that income is possible failure in two subjects and poorer health because you are working 60-hour weeks? Focus on your long-term goal (graduation from the program you are in, a satisfactory rate of return on your educational investment), and avoid any commitments that might distract you from it.

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