Learning Life Skills: Time Management

John Strachan found ways to apply time management into his daily work schedule

BY: Brianna Hale

A mother with an unfinished degree. An employee with limited career options. A young man with an academic dream. A Relief Society teacher with doubts about learning. Each overcame their trials by learning and applying life skills.

Through PathwayConnect’s Life Skills course, four students learned to broaden their academic and career paths. This is their story.

“Applying time management helped me be a more efficient employee with my time and helps me accomplish more in a day than I used to.”

It had been 25 years since John Strachan last enrolled in college classes. Even though he was working for a company he loved as a bus operator trainer, John realized his lack of higher education was preventing him from advancing in the workplace.

After completing PathwayConnect’s Life Skills course in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, John has begun to see the real world application in the curriculum. Taking what he has learned from the program’s Time Management lesson in the Life Skills course, John has seen how PathwayConnect improves careers.

PathwayConnect in the Workplace

Because John better managed his time, his company’s toy drive surpassed previous years.

For John, PathwayConnect’s Life Skills class taught him the principle of time management and keeping a schedule. By writing a list of priorities, John was able to more efficiently remember his deadlines and organize his tasks.

“Before I took the class, I didn’t always write down a priority list; instead, I kept one in my head,” John said. “I learned that the problem of keeping my list in my head is that I could forget an item. When I write it down, I have  a visual reminder of my deadlines.”

When John’s PathwayConnect group was learning about time management, he was busy at work balancing his normal workload and multiple important projects with deadlines just days apart. At the top of John’s list was organizing his company’s annual Christmas toy drive. Instead of getting stressed and missing his deadlines, John followed the principles of time management and note-taking to create a schedule for himself.  

“Applying time management helped me avoid pitfalls that would have wasted time,” John said.  “I found myself working through break times for two and a half months, but in the end the toy drive was a success. It was the greatest amount of toys that we had ever delivered — more than 6,000 toys were given to children in the Vancouver, Canada, area!”

John’s time management skills helped him hit deadlines and deliver holiday toys in a decorated bus.

Applying Time Management

John was able to organize his deadlines to complete assignments at work, but how can time management benefit others? Here are some tips anyone can use to improve their time management:

• Write everything down
• Use a weekly planner, a personal calendar, a notebook, or online apps
• Track the dates of important events and deadlines
• Be productive with the time available to ensure everything is completed efficiently

When building a habit of better time management, the biggest principle to learn is how to invest time versus just spending time. ¹

President Thomas S. Monson said, “Make certain as you prepare that you do not procrastinate… It is the thief of our self-respect. It nags at us and spoils our fun. It deprives us of the fullest realization of our ambitions and hopes.”²

Open Opportunities

PathwayConnect equipped John with the tools he needed to succeed at work, which now gives him future opportunities to advance in his career. John’s newly gained education benefits him in more ways that he thought possible.

“PathwayConnect has opened doors for advancement with my education and advancement with my current employer. Each course in PathwayConnect has been a blessing in my life and my professional development,” John said.

John was able to manage his work schedule so he could get everything done and take time off to be with his family.

This is part two in a four part series about the PathwayConnect Life Skills course. Stay tuned for part three, the story about an international student who was thousands of miles away from his educational goals.

One of the benefits of being a PathwayConnect student is learning how to manage your time! To experience the ways PathwayConnect can improve your life, visit byupathway.lds.org to apply today!

1. ^ GS120 Life Skills Course, “Lesson 07: Time Management”
2. ^ President Thomas S. Monson, “Three Gates Only You Can Open,” New Era, August 2008