THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
FRESHMAN LECTURES @&

THE BUSINESS-LIKE USE OF STUDY TIME

It may seem that a carefully planned schedule of study time is a good deal
of trouble to begin and more trouble to continue. Haphazard use of our time is
easier, at first, but returns very poor dividends. A great American psycholo-
gist and teacher, William James, reminds us that "There is no more miserable
human being than one a whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom
the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and
going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work, are subjects of
express volitional deliberation. Full half the time of such a man goes to the
deciding, or regretting, of matters which ought to be so ingrained in him as
practically not to exist for his consciousness at all. If there be such daily
duties not yet ingrained in one of my readers, let him begin this very hour to
set the matter right."

Unquestionably there are excellent students who do not, consciously at
least, budget their time, and there are poor students who do. System is not
the only factor, but it seems tobe the most important controllable factor, and
it is only the stupid person who believes that a messy studio makes an artist,
irresponsible behavior a prima donna, or lack of sleep an inventor. If we are
common people our success will depend on common sense, :

The purpose of these pages is to suggest some of the common sense consider~
ations which will make it easier to make a reasonable time budget and to keep to
it after it is made. There are fifteen of these suggestions.

1. Determine how many hours each week you will need to do your work satis-
factorily. This will vary with our ability, but for tho averago student, tio
hours of study outside of class for each hour of recitation and one hour for
each two hours of laboratory, will allow ample time in most cases. If you are
taking 15 hours of course work you should spend about 45 hours a week in class
and in. study, 48 hours if you are carrying 16 hours, and so on.

2. Make up your mind whether this is fair, and whether your education is
worth this much trouble to you. Probably less than half the students actually
work this long, yet this is less than you would be spending if you were working
in a store, factory, or office. If you believe that this is a reasonable re-
quirement, you will probably find that it will be almost impossible to meet it
without some sort of schedule.

3. Decide that you will not let a 45 or 50 hour week become a 12 or 14 hours
a day job. “Midnight oil" is a picturesque phrase, well thought of, but it
usually describes the uscless result of wasted time. ‘Unless you are working
leng hours on the outside, your school work should hardly ever keep you from a
worth-while concert, play, athletic event, or from active participation in one

or more organizations. You have probably known the good student who has plenty
_of time for everything; he usually spends more time really working on his lessons
than the poor student who is too busy for anything.

4, Make a ‘plot of the time you want to spend in study, including your class
periods, plus enough extra time to make up the necessary total. For a 48-hour
week this might look something like this: