Does anyone ever really perfect the art of time management in school? I don't know what it is about this semester but I am absolutely slammed and having a hard time keeping up with all my classes. I place priority on studio but it is to the detriment of tech and my visual studies courses which are in really bad shape right now from being neglected all semester. I've tried budgeting a few hours a day for each class, then I've tried budgeting entire days for specific classes... but it always feels so unbalanced. I put in 12-14 hour days, I don't think I can do much more than that. How do you all juggle several simultaneous deadlines?
awaiting_deletion
Apr 22, 15 5:48 pm
whoever pays the most and then whoever yells the loudest and then I just lie or deliver sub par work to everyone else.....in school studio was the high paying client.
Carrera
Apr 22, 15 5:58 pm
Too long since school, but have lived with plenty of deadlines….I had someone I trusted sit with me and I’d white-board my stuff and talk about each….then I’d let this sane person break it apart into priorities and just work it one thing at a time, starting at the top….amazing how so many of the low priority things just drifted away….know this sounds a little Rodney Dangerfield (Back to School) but I think hiring an underclassman to help isn’t a bad idea….would if I went “Back to School”.
shellarchitect
Apr 23, 15 7:09 pm
Looking back I don't know why people spend so much time on studio, the other stuff is just as important if not more. Just make sure you pass
,,,,
Apr 24, 15 4:13 pm
Take a book with you. You would be surprised how much you can get done while standing in line at the bank, cafeteria and the laundry.
toosaturated
Apr 24, 15 4:50 pm
I used to think that studio was the most important class and other classes came second, I regret thinking that way. Studio work can take as much time as you allow it to. Keep up with your other classes because they are usually easier and solutions can be reached methodologically.
Studio is very forgiving if everything is not perfect, I would emphasize exploring/developing concepts and pushing them rather than spending your time laser cutting or creating pristine renderings that lacks thought. If something is taking to much time and you still need to do an elevation, I would start the elevation and come back and add the finishing touches to whatever you were working on before.
Alex S
Apr 25, 15 12:57 pm
I never used this advice during my time in undergrad, but you need to block out time to work on classes. 2 hours there, 2 hours here, 4 hours here.. Even if it's every day you're doing 6 hours on studio, block out 1 hour for each other class per day and you shouldn't end up getting behind. When I go to grad school I plan on following this advice. (But you know what they say about plans.)
rationalist
Apr 25, 15 2:55 pm
Sleep less. I know that makes me sound like a dick, but that's the way design is. Coming up on midterm review or end of the semester, 12–14 hours a day is normal for just studio, everything else is in addition to that. That's why all-nighters are such a trope of architecture school, because at some point the amount of work to be done exceeds the amount you're able to reasonably do in a day/week/whatever.
Getting more specific, schedule the tasks that you find most difficult, especially mentally, earlier in the day and try to leave the tedious hand-work for late at night.
JsBach
Apr 25, 15 3:14 pm
What worked for me was to not get bogged down. If you aren't focused and being productive on a certain task, move on to some thing else and come back later. That doesn't mean to procrastinate indefinitely, just don't spend 2 hours staring at a page. For design solutions especially, just keep coming back to a problem and you usually will get an answer, sometimes even when you aren't specifically working on it. It doesn't hurt to block out a schedule, but don't be so rigid that you waste 2 hours when the answer just isn't there.
I also found it easier to solve just about any problem when I enlisted discussion and help from others. Whether it's a study group for history and structures, or hanging out in the studio after dinner to trade ideas with other students (even some professors come by later). This will prepare you for the real world of architecture where almost everything is a collaboration.
Carrera
Apr 25, 15 4:22 pm
Sorry, just don’t see the educational benefit of drudgery, instead they should be teaching the art of delegating.
curtkram
Apr 25, 15 4:52 pm
somebody has to actually do the work. otherwise, nothing gets done.
what we need to do is fix the socioeconomic or political or monetary or whatever it is system that punishes people for working and rewards people for being lazy and stupid.
Does anyone ever really perfect the art of time management in school? I don't know what it is about this semester but I am absolutely slammed and having a hard time keeping up with all my classes. I place priority on studio but it is to the detriment of tech and my visual studies courses which are in really bad shape right now from being neglected all semester. I've tried budgeting a few hours a day for each class, then I've tried budgeting entire days for specific classes... but it always feels so unbalanced. I put in 12-14 hour days, I don't think I can do much more than that. How do you all juggle several simultaneous deadlines?
whoever pays the most and then whoever yells the loudest and then I just lie or deliver sub par work to everyone else.....in school studio was the high paying client.
Too long since school, but have lived with plenty of deadlines….I had someone I trusted sit with me and I’d white-board my stuff and talk about each….then I’d let this sane person break it apart into priorities and just work it one thing at a time, starting at the top….amazing how so many of the low priority things just drifted away….know this sounds a little Rodney Dangerfield (Back to School) but I think hiring an underclassman to help isn’t a bad idea….would if I went “Back to School”.
Looking back I don't know why people spend so much time on studio, the other stuff is just as important if not more. Just make sure you pass
Take a book with you. You would be surprised how much you can get done while standing in line at the bank, cafeteria and the laundry.
I used to think that studio was the most important class and other classes came second, I regret thinking that way. Studio work can take as much time as you allow it to. Keep up with your other classes because they are usually easier and solutions can be reached methodologically.
Studio is very forgiving if everything is not perfect, I would emphasize exploring/developing concepts and pushing them rather than spending your time laser cutting or creating pristine renderings that lacks thought. If something is taking to much time and you still need to do an elevation, I would start the elevation and come back and add the finishing touches to whatever you were working on before.
I never used this advice during my time in undergrad, but you need to block out time to work on classes. 2 hours there, 2 hours here, 4 hours here.. Even if it's every day you're doing 6 hours on studio, block out 1 hour for each other class per day and you shouldn't end up getting behind. When I go to grad school I plan on following this advice. (But you know what they say about plans.)
Sleep less. I know that makes me sound like a dick, but that's the way design is. Coming up on midterm review or end of the semester, 12–14 hours a day is normal for just studio, everything else is in addition to that. That's why all-nighters are such a trope of architecture school, because at some point the amount of work to be done exceeds the amount you're able to reasonably do in a day/week/whatever.
Getting more specific, schedule the tasks that you find most difficult, especially mentally, earlier in the day and try to leave the tedious hand-work for late at night.
What worked for me was to not get bogged down. If you aren't focused and being productive on a certain task, move on to some thing else and come back later. That doesn't mean to procrastinate indefinitely, just don't spend 2 hours staring at a page. For design solutions especially, just keep coming back to a problem and you usually will get an answer, sometimes even when you aren't specifically working on it. It doesn't hurt to block out a schedule, but don't be so rigid that you waste 2 hours when the answer just isn't there.
I also found it easier to solve just about any problem when I enlisted discussion and help from others. Whether it's a study group for history and structures, or hanging out in the studio after dinner to trade ideas with other students (even some professors come by later). This will prepare you for the real world of architecture where almost everything is a collaboration.
Sorry, just don’t see the educational benefit of drudgery, instead they should be teaching the art of delegating.
somebody has to actually do the work. otherwise, nothing gets done.
what we need to do is fix the socioeconomic or political or monetary or whatever it is system that punishes people for working and rewards people for being lazy and stupid.