I think it's just about being honest with yourself, knowing how long it takes *you* to do something. I guess my tip would be this: Anytime you catch yourself saying "X should take me an hour, but I bet if I worked hard I could get it done in 45 minutes," stop. Budget for the hour, because the 45 minutes is a pipe dream. Also, reassess things about a third of the way through to see if your time estimate was reasonable, or whether you need to be figuring out another way to get things done.

I was doing school part-time this year, so I had time to do most everything without worrying too much about it. The part that scares me is that I'd come home from school and not be at all in the mood to start on my work. It was soooo much easier to make some dinner, hang out with my girlfriend, go for a walk....

.... then I'd be doing my homework the day before, when I had all week to get it done. I work well under pressure, but that's becoming real old, real fast.

I don't follow the whole Getting Things Done system, but I have definitely picked up on some of its key ideas:

1. Have a single place where you put all the tasks you need: a notebook, a task list on your computer, whatever. But only have one place. If you have notes and tasks scattered all over the place, you never get a proper picture of what needs to happen when.

2. When you write a task for yourself, make sure it has a clear 'action' verb associated with it. Be specific. 'Work on presentation drawings' is too vague. There is no way to assess whether you have succeeded or not. 'Draft presentation plan' is much better. Sometimes this means you need to break one vague task down into several precise ones.

Two good resources are 43folders and lifehacker.

yes, indeed, slantsix. you're first guess was right. now scroll up to the top of this page and click on 'Log-out'.

:P

Thanks.

get into the studio as early as possible. I'd get in at about 630-7am, just when the coffee shop opened ;-). It was nice, no one there for hours. I would be done for the day by 7-8 pm and get a good nights sleep. Overall, I probably put in many more hours than a lot of people, but I kept a 'normal' schedule. I didn't learn this until grad school, mind you, and kept the 'stay 'till 3am, sleep 'till 10am' schedule for most of undergrad.

But as you can see, I like getting up early (its 630am on a Sunday morning)!

Seperate work from Play. I think the best thing for me was when i went to studio to do work I worked and then afterwards I would relax and watch some of my favorite shows or go to the bar.

Set a schedule, get up everday at the same time eat lunch around the same time,it seems a little robotic but you need structure in your life.

set goals.. short term to long term and prioritize whats really important then after everyday or every goal ask yourself if you were productive and evaluate how long that took you

give away your car, ride a bike.

when it actually takes physical effort to get around, you start to subconsciously re-evaluate why you go where you go / do what you do.

I made google my homepage and use the to-do list feature. That way I can't lose the list and can bring it up anywhere.

Myself and a bunch of people who sat near me used to go on Internet Embargos during crunch time.

No web surfing except to check and answer email, and even that was only allowed while eating lunch or dinner at your desk. No clicking on forwarded links allowed. Minimal research with time limits was allowed but only if you announced it to the group first.

We all watched each other's backs to keep it honest, if somebody got caught breaking the rules they had to go buy coffee for everyone else.

Love to work and love yourself, trust your body and your body clock, be at peace with yourself and you will be never disappointed..

to add to everyone else's pointers, learn to prioritize and eliminating things you do that really is just a waste of time. If those things are your relax time, then again, prioritization comes into play.

oh, and don't be afraid or ashamed to say "no." Think about it.

All excellent suggestions.

I think the one thing that'll help me most is having everything in one spot. That has worked for me in the past, but now it's time to get everything - and I do mean everything - organized. Part of my problem with getting my schoolwork done on time is that I often just forget about it because it's not in front of me - out of sight, out of mind!

Making a schedule can really help. When I am in a crunch I photocopy a calendar, write down all the due dates and count backward the amount of time it will take me to do each. Then at least you know if you are behind.

I think a regular sleep schedule really helps you get the most out of what sleep you are able to get. And pay attention to how much time you spend gabbing, that can really make it hard to get studio work done. Mornings are great and can be very productive, but they are not for everyone.

personally, here is what helped me:

making lists of tasks, and setting goals in accomplishing the tasks really helped me focus my efforts, and avoid the "i'am overwhelmed" panic. know your weaknesses and stregths and plan accordingly...if you are a night person, plan on working at night...if you are a morning person, work in the morning...in other words, go with the flow. Take 10 min. breaks when you are stuck...oh, and find good music to help you concentrate...i don't know why, but Leonard Cohen would keep me going for hours and hours without losing focus...

those worked for me...hopefully something in there might be helpful!

stay off archinect

I could always tell the adults from the kids whenever I got into studio and someone was going off about how late he/she stayed up preparing for class. there was always some sort of merit badge people were trying to earn by working in the wee hours of the morning. Most of those students spent the day hours downloading music and doing chatty laps around studio keeping up on the gossip, and then they wanted all kinds of sympathy for their late-night drudgery.

Do yourself a favor and start treating your education like a career now. Start at a regular time in the morning. Leave for a break like lunch. Work late enough to get your shit in order but be productive enough during that day to go home in time to rest.

I figured this one out after 3rd year and it was immensely beneficial once I reached grad school - you have to discipline yourself at that point and many people drowned without someone telling them what to do all the time. Make a calendar of the ENTIRE semester detailing major deadlines, then count backwards and make personal deadlines that keep you on track for your goal. I know it sounds anal, but that's how successful people make big things happen.

Someone once told me that true definition of Time Management is "compression of all the undesirable activities..."

I'll second a lot of these. I was a merrit badge kid during Studio 1. I also had the blood pressure of an 80 year old smoker as my doctor put it. I cut out all the BS and started working a little smarter, and I only pulled 2 alnighters in the past two years (and both were because I broke into our shop to finish out a model that was more complex than it needed to be)

I use a moleskine journal to keep up with all the crap I need to do. It looks cool, and they make pocket journals that are about the size of a wallet, which I always keep with my wallet.

Get up at the same time every day no matter what. My studio time is from 7 a.m. till I finish which is rarely later than 5 or 6. (Midnight during finals)

I keep a cheep kitchen timer in my studio, and during the semester I time my internet time like a nazi. No more than 20 minutes.

Learn to work smarter. I spent some time over one Christmas break polishing up on my AutoCAD and learning some new tricks and tools. That alone has saved me weeks worth of time over the past two years.

Take your vitamins. I'm a pretty hard worker without 'em, but as soon as I get some B-12 pumping through my system I'm like a spider monkey on crack...that is a spider monkey on crack who won't rest until the pres drawings are done and all the renderings are set up on the render farm.

Hope that helps. And yes, Architecture CAN be done without the alnighters. I've got a 4.0 to prove it.

amen to the B vitamins, they came highly recommended from a friend during school, and they usually did the trick...however i usually chased it with a big big coffee.