Non-Traditional College Students Making the Best of Their Time

Non-traditional college students must recognize windows of opportunity to optimize time management.

Non-traditional students, in many schools, make up over 70% of the population. Whether you’re a nontraditional college student (or a traditional student) with a busy life, you need to know that you will have many windows of opportunity to squeeze in some studying in the course of a day.

Go ahead; think of all the occasions your time is out of your control.  Stand in any kind of line lately?  Waited for someone else in the last 24 hours? Take control back and be ready to whip out those 3×5 cards containing your review notes and study whenever time permits.

It does not even matter if these gifts of time, as I think of them, are 5 minutes or 15. Because we remember what we studied first, and what we studied last, short study sessions can be an important part of learning what you need to learn while still having time for a life.  Keep in mind that the non-traditional student generally has less time to study than a traditional student.

In order to maximize time management, the non-traditional college student should write down their goals and their plans for achieving those goals. This includes everything from when you plan on studying  all the way to what you want to get out of college and the reason you are getting that college degree.

As you go through the day, track your progress.  That’s right, check off what you’ve accomplished, and at the end of the day, tell yourself the truth. Did you do those things that really matter? If the answer is yes, then you can sleep well.  If the answer is no, it really doesn’t matter how ‘busy’ you were that day because you weren’t busy doing the things you say matter the most.

All too often, non-traditional students are not as successful as they could be simply because they are not being true to themselves about what they accomplished that day.  So, make the best of it!  Show those traditional students that you’ve got what it takes to be a success!

Hi, I’m Crystal Jonas,

As a former academic advisor and assistant professor at the United States Air Force Academy, I know what it takes to make college students more successful than they thought possible, and enjoy school whole lot more. My website is http://collegelifesite.com Sign up for my free newsletters while you’re there.

Ask about speaking or coaching for your students or faculty. Call me at 719- 291-0366.