Higher Grades in Fifteen Minutes - written by Daniel Kane

Adult students return to college with well defined goals, significant life experience, and maturity. In those areas they are generally ahead of their younger counterparts.

So, what challenges are most difficult for them?

It is not always easy to divide one's week so that career, family, and education all get the time they require. And, while students in online degree programs have more flexibility than those attending on-campus classes on a fixed schedule, they still face the pressures of keeping up with readings and other assignments.

The ability to manage time efficiently and the self-discipline to work as hard as necessary are essential to the success of students of all ages. They are especially essential to adult students who must balance the demands of family, career, and the pursuit of a degree.

Interestingly, even the most accomplished people often overlook a very simple technique that is very simple but can yield great results.

It would be nice to be able to add hours to your days or days to your weeks. But, although that is not possible, finding unused fifteen minute periods of time is not. And, if you can find and use just two such periods each day, the result is three and a half hours a week...nearly fifteen hours a month...of additional time devoted to your studies.

What can you accomplish in fifteen minutes? You can read and/or revise a few pages of notes, reread a passage that is important or difficult, put together a study schedule for the week, begin or continue an outline for a paper, email a member of your study group, email a question to one of your professors, or do some research online.

You can do significant work in fifteen minutes. And, you can "manufacture" fifteen minute blocks of time by postponing your bedtime, awakening a bit earlier, shortening the time you spend eating lunch, or reading a bit before leaving your office at the end of your work day. The possibilities are nearly limitless.

One student I know spends fifteen minutes on her assignments whenever she returns to her home. You might laugh, but it's been two years since she's had a grade of any kind below an "A", and that was a B+ on a quiz.

Everyone can find two additional fifteen minute periods a day to spend on their studies. And, taking advantage of those small blocks of time really can turn a competent student into a high-achiever.