Importance of Using a Planner: Persuasive Time Management Essay Example
Having a series of activities to attend to makes it difficult for people to effectively organize their schedules. It is important to balance all activities so that every event is allocated adequate time. The need to plan and organize one’s time is common to students and professionals. Students have several academic programs to attend to as they also need to fulfill their social needs. Professionals have several responsibilities that they have to undertake within limited time. It explains why people should use daily planners to help them solve the problem of poor time management and ineffective organization. It helps to keep track of daily schedules, to increase people’s time management and to reduce stress.
Key words: planner, activities, events, organization, time management, stress
Introduction
I agree with Zavala (2013) who states that most people live busy lives that pose a great challenge for them to coordinate their activities and ensure that all duties are attended to at the right time. Proper organization is the only secret of success due to people’s busy schedules. With the current societal demands, people have to balance between school, work and family responsibilities. It is because education is a continuous process that has to be advanced alongside the other responsibilities. With the many responsibilities, people are unable to keep track of all that needs to be done. In some situations, one can focus on the demands of social life and forget about the essence of allocating time for academic life, hobbies, important events to attend and family to take care of among many other responsibilities.
It is when faced with such challenges that the importance of a planner, as an essential tool for planning and organizing people’s activities, is realized. Students, parents and professionals need to use a planner to help them ensure proper time management. It is important for students to adopt the use of a planner as a routine early in life as the benefits are also realized later in people’s professional lives. As a student, college students have series of activities to perform. There are lectures to be attended, assignments to be completed, presentations to be made and examinations to be done besides several other activities. Having a planner can help a student balance all essential activities so as to be successful in the academic undertakings. Professionals have several appointments to keep, meetings to attend and projects to accomplish (Grissom, Loeb & Mitani, 2015). Attending all the activities can only be made possible through proper planning using a planner.
Using a Planner to Ensure Proper Time Management
The first importance of a planner is that it helps in ensuring proper time management. Time management is important in college students’ academic life. It helps college students to organize themselves and attend to all essential activities as they balance their work family lives. In most cases, people are aware of what they need to do but fail to remember them at the right time. It is because the mind is unable to keep track of several activities that people need to attend to. Therefore, it is necessary for students to determine the amount of time that should be spent in undertaking every activity so as to ensure that all responsibilities are attended to. To succeed, people need to use a day planner. As Zavala (2013) notes, the tool has daily or weekly overview that offer people an opportunity to pencil in all events that they need to attend and activities to be undertaken while remaining cognizant of the busy schedule that has to be adhered to. A planner also offers students, professionals and parents a chance to jot down all information and ideas that they do not wish to forget.
By using a planner as a time management tool, one can effectively organize daily events with respect to the particular time that they need to be undertaken. It helps people to get a view of their daily schedule, exercise proper time control and safeguard against instances where commitments conflict with each other. The benefit of proper time management leads to immeasurable gains. It opens the door to several benefits as people are in a position to exercise control over their lives. In the long run, people become more productive and capable of meeting more goals. Pylarinos (2015) suggests that proper planning increases the productivity of students’ academic life as they can allocate their available time equitably to all courses and allocate others time to satisfy their social lives. When students start using a planner in their student life, they are likely to learn the skill, perfect it and use it later in their professional life.
Using a Planner as a Reminder
The second benefit of a planner is that it can be used to help people remember more hence accomplishing their vital daily activities. According to Park (2013), using a planner is equated to having a personal assistant that helps to remind one about every important event or activity to attend to. It gives college students an opportunity to put their activities and appointments down in writing and to allocate them specific dates and time. People are able to refer to a planner from time to time to remind themselves about the schedule. In doing so, they are unlikely to forget anything irrespective of how much they have to do. Students can solve the problem of late submission of assignments, failure to attend important lectures and lateness to sit in examinations by making use of a planner. It follows that common internal conflicts that result from guilt of failing to do things in time will be long gone. Student-instructor relationships are likely to improve as students do all that their instructors expect them to do within the time limits that are allocated.
College students who are also involved in business are likely to enhance the relationship between them and their clients for they are able to keep appointments. For workers or students with families, it becomes easy to balance the work-family or the academic-family life. It is clear that the success that comes as a result of using a planner to ensure proper organization will inspire more people to fulfill their academic and professional dreams. It confirms the fact that people can advance their education as they work and succeed in both. Thus, students should not restrict themselves to studies without allocating time for their social life. Social development contributes to the overall objectives of education. The fear that participating in extracurricular activities can hamper one’s academic success is rendered futile with effective use of a planner. As Zavala (2013) suggests, a planner enables one to know what to do at any given time so that nothing is neglected.
Using a Planner Helps to Reduce Stress
According to Gelding Scientific Research (2015), a planner helps to decrease stress. People suffer from stress as a result of inability to accomplish all that needs to be done. Stress has no boundaries. Students suffer stress in a similar way as professionals. Stress comes as a result of unfulfilled needs or failure to accomplish given objectives. Looking at student’s life, there is an overwhelming pressure to excel in academics. Students need to give value for their financial input in academics. In some cases, people have other commitments that they need to attend to besides their academic schedules. When the needs collide, students end up stressed and may get unwell as they get disappointed with their inability to attain their demands. Stress has been identified as a contributor to termination of students’ academic undertakings. It is common among students that have families to take care of or those who seek to advance their education as they attend to their professional obligations. According to Gelding Scientific Research (2015), the main challenge that hinders accomplishment of academic, family and professional demands is poor planning and coordination.
A planner is the best remedy for poor schools. In people’s professional life, there are several situations that expose them to stress. College students who are working have duties to accomplish upon which their effectiveness is measured. Hallman (2012) observed that some organizations call for workers to sign performance contracts as a show of commitment to attain their job requirements. Due to the need to safeguard their jobs, college students need to organize themselves well and do all that fall within their job description. Some jobs require employees to multitask for them to accomplish the demands of their professions. The problem can be brought to an end by effective use of a planner.
Technological advancements have facilitated the use of a planner for people to organize their daily activities. Many of the college-level students have resorted to the use of smart phones and virtual assistants. As a result of innovations in the field of technology, people can use the electronic versions of a planner to plan their activities. Smart phones have daily planning applications that can be used in place of a printed daily planner. An electronic planner has extra features that allow people to keep their contacts up to date and to use an additional emailing tool (Ciparum, 2014). By use of emailing, people college students have automatic reminders sent to them on vital events.
Conclusion
Based on this discussion, it is clear that using a planner can help solve several problems that are encountered due to lapses in time management and inability to effectively coordinate activities. A planner is essential to students, professionals and parents alike. Using a planner, people can attend to all needs ranging from their academic undertakings, professional responsibilities and family obligations. It bridges the gap between professionalism and the desire for academic advancement. Sun and Yang (2013) suggest that a planner can help students to do all their assignments in time and allocate time for their social development by participating in co-curricular activities. Professionals are also able to plan and coordinate their activities so that the meet the demands of their professional lives. Besides, a planner helps people to balance their time effectively so that they can effectively attend to multiple needs without compromising one. Generally, a planner helps people to keep track of their daily activities. It helps to boost productivity and to reduce stress. It also helps people to maintain a good relationship with their clients due to their ability to obey appointments.