Zane's Time Management Entry

This week’s blog focuses on time management skills. The following is my assessment of two time management Strategies: The Fritter Finder and 20 minute Test Prep.

Fritter Finder: The primary purpose of this exercise is to locate the seemingly brief moments of free time throughout the day and figure out how these times can be spent more productively. The strategy begins with filling out a weekly planner which shows your class schedule. For my fritter finder, I found both my earliest and latest class times and
allowed them to serve as starting and ending points for each weekday. Next, I highlighted all of the times throughout the day in which I was not in class; this was my fritter:
The spaces highlighted in blue represent fritter hours. Classes Highlighted in yellow represent time in between classes that are less than an hour. While these times would generally be spent eating, they could potentially be put towards studying or further organization. I found that on average, I have about 4 ½ hours of free time a day from Monday to Thursday. Whereas I only have on class on Friday, I have about 7 hours of free time. This strategy was helpful in that it served to alleviate some of the anxiety I had felt about not having enough time throughout for studying or recreational activities. Though there are no flaws in the strategy, the problem then becomes how this newly found free time should be spent.

After Conducting the Fritter Finder, I took some time during one of these free times to try out the 20 min test prep technique. Essentially, the idea is to review the information from a class directly after learning it for 20 minutes. For this strategy, I used the jeopardy note taking method: a series of answers or definitions on the left of the page with their corresponding questions of the right.

20 Minute Test Prep:

ANT 101 Jeopardy

Answers Questions

Comparative study of human societies and cultures	What is “Anthropology”?
Learned behaviors/symbols necessary to operate within particular group. Notion of humans adapting to natural environment; way of life characteristic of a particular human society	What is “Culture”?
An Anthropological approach which combines culture, history, language and biology (and learned /shared patterns of human behavior) to analyze human groups.	What is “Holism”?
An examination of society using concepts, categories, and distinctions that are meaningful to members of that culture	What is “Emic”?
An examination of society using concepts, categories and distinctions that derive from science	What is “Etic”?
An attempt to find general principles/laws that govern cultural phenomena	What is “Ethnology”?
A sub-discipline of anthropology that focuses on reconstructing past cultures using material remains	What is “Archaeology”?
A sub-discipline of anthropology concerned with understanding language in relation to culture	What is “Linguistic Anthropology”?

When studying, I often find that it is difficult to stay focused and on task. Whereas I am essentially being timed with this strategy, I felt that the 20 minute technique served to facilitate this process. Using the jeopardy note taking method was also beneficial; as opposed to remembering the definitions, it allowed allowed me to identify key concepts an ideas with certain terms.