Time Management Calculator for College Students

How To Use This Calculator

This worksheet will provide a broad estimate of your time management status as a UTEP student. Be sure to enter only numbers! Do not enter anything in the red boxes. These boxes indicate the results of automatic calculations.

If you enter an incorrect figure simply erase it and input the correct one. Click on the "calculate" button when you come to it. If you change any entries you must click again on the calculation button to get a new answer.

NOTE: This calculator is designed for full time students only (12 credits or more in current semester). Results are confidential, are visible only to you, and are not saved.

1. Estimate the number of pages of serious college-level text you can read per hour. (Guess! Hint: Most entering students read somewhere between 6 and 50 pages at college level per hr.)	pages / hr
2. Enter the total number of credit hours you are taking this semester (at least 12).	credits
3. Enter the number of math, science or engineering courses you are taking this semester if these regularly involve doing a significant number of homework "problems," exercises or complex questions from the book.	courses
4. Enter the number of writing-intensive courses you are taking this semester (e.g. ENGL 0312, RWS 1301 or 1302, Creative Writing, ESOL 1309, 1311 or 1312, or any other courses involving several essays, papers, reports or responses, or a large amount of other sorts of research and writing).	courses
5. *Enter the average number of hours a week you spend (or should* spend) on games, practice, exercise or rehearsals** for a team, activity or sport, both on or off campus, or for music, band, orchestra, voice-training or choir, dance, ballet, theater, or drama, drill-team, yoga, acrobatics or martial arts, or for your own personal health, weight-control or well being. Be sure to include all weekly gym or spa time, plus all recreational walking, jogging, running, working out, boxing, skateboarding, training, or in the weight room, even if just for fun.	hrs / wk
6. Enter the time you spend weekly commuting to and from UTEP (multiply daily total commute time by number of days you attend). Calculate your commute time "portal to portal," i.e. from the moment you go out your own front door until the moment you actually enter the classroom. Include daily time used finding parking, and getting from the parking lot to the classroom. Round off your weekly total to the nearest hour. If you stay in Miner Village enter "0" (zero).	hrs / wk
7. Enter the average number of weekly hours you work, either for pay or on volunteer work, on or off campus.	hrs / wk
8. Estimate your total weekly commute time to and from work (total daily commute time multiplied by the number of days a week worked). Calculate your commute time "portal to portal," i.e. from the time you go out your door until the time you actually clock into work. Round off your weekly total to the nearest hour. If you only work on campus, enter "0" (zero).	hrs / wk
9. Enter the ideal number of hours of sleep you need per night. NOTE: This is not meant to be the absolute minimum amount of sleep per night that you can survive with, but rather the number of hours of sleep you need to be totally rested in the morning and at your very best! For most younger people this figure is between 7 and 9 hours a night, every night. Be honest!	hrs / night
10. Estimate the average number of hours you spend per week socializing or "hanging out" with a boyfriend or girlfriend, or partying, going to clubs, bars or restaurants, and any additional weekly time you reserve for dating, "going out," or just having fun with friends, or any "quality time" you spend with a significant other, fiancé(e), spouse or kids. NOTE: Please be honest with yourself. If applicable, also add to this figure any additional weekly "down-time" hours spent drinking or intoxicated, "high," "stoned" or hung over and unable to work or study.	hrs / wk
11. Estimate the average total number of hours you spend per week on the Net, texting, gaming, on social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter, reading, writing or answering e-mail, watching sporting events, general TV or movie-watching or any other non-school-related screen-watching and/or keyboarding of any kind. NOTE: Please be honest with yourself.	hrs / wk
12. Estimate the total number of hours you spend on the phone per week. NOTE: Include all time talking on the phone to parents or other family, to friends, or to a girlfriend/boyfriend, fiancé(e) or a significant other. Be honest with yourself!	hrs / wk
13. Estimate the total number of hours you spend per week on shopping, in stores, or or in the mall. NOTE: Include both necessary shopping and "recreational shopping," fun shopping or mall-walking if not included in #5 above. Be honest with yourself!	hrs / wk

A. Click here: to find the total average time you have left per week for all other activities not listed above (e.g., dressing and personal care, family obligations and child care, cooking and cleaning, laundry, religious, civic or political involvement, health care, medical and dental appointments. car maintenance, etc.) NOTE: IF THIS FIGURE IS NEGATIVE this indicates a serious overload--either you are shorting yourself on sleep, seriously neglecting your studies, or cutting yourself short on some other aspect of your life. If the figure is less than 14 hours you are still experiencing significant time management problems. In either case you are "burning the candle at both ends,", and any minor illness or upset, temporary emergency, car problem, or even a slight change of family situation, employment schedule or homework assignments may easily "sink" your UTEP career! Be careful!	hrs / wk
B. Average daily hours you have left over in a seven-day week. (automatic calculation)	hrs / day

How to interpret results:

Negative numbers: Danger! Meltdown imminent! RED ALERT!

1 to 14 hours /wk : Stop some activities! Overload! Red light!

15-21 hours/wk : Caution! Slow down! Yellow light!

22 or more hours: Go ahead! Green light!

Explanation and Assumptions

This calculator assumes that as a full-time student you will have about 300 pages of reading per week [50 to 75 pages a week per course, the UTEP norm], plus extra hours for each writing-intensive or math / science / engineering class. It also factors in exactly 1 hour and 30 minutes a day (30 minutes per meal) for cooking and eating three meals a day.

IMPORTANT: Figures generated by this calculator are estimates only, and actual results can vary widely! Items highlighted in light green are flexible, and probably are the ones that are most within your power to change without great sacrifice or change of lifestyle.