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How Am I Spending My Time?

Download the ABMP Time Tracker form and other study forms and start using your time more efficiently right now!

Time Trackers

Watch this fabulous arm technique from ABMP’s Director of Education Anne Williams.

Dance of the Arms

How Am I Spending My Time?

You don’t have to be in massage school long before you realize that every minute counts. Somewhere you’ve got to find the time for study if you want to get good grades and pass your training program.

How are you going to rearrange your schedule to make time to study? Download the ABMP Time Tracker form from the Picked Fresh section of this newsletter. Take a week and keep track of what you do each hour, including sleep. This will help you understand how you currently spend your time.

Next, review your form carefully and see how many hours you dedicated to entertainment or to time-wasting activities each week, including:

  1. Watching TV or movies
  2. Procrastinating (putting off a task or activity you must get done)
  3. Reading the news online, in a magazine, or in a newspaper
  4. Playing video games
  5. Surfing the Internet (e.g., watching online videos, reading random articles about celebrities, etc.)
  6. Checking and updating social media sites
  7. Letting email notifications interrupt what you’re doing  
  8. Talking on the phone
  9. Other

The hours you have identified for the areas above represent the total amount of time you could dedicate to more life-affirming and productive pursuits, especially study, exercise, more sleep if you need it, or friends and family.

Planning Time in the Future

Print off a clean Time Tracker form and plan the upcoming week. Fill in any fixed commitments such as work hours, family obligations, in-class hours, and sleep. Before you can establish time for study or other life-affirming activities, you must first identify how and when your time is committed elsewhere.

When you’re done, you will hopefully see some blank spaces in your day. Do your best to schedule 14 hours of dedicated study time each week (you can probably get away with 10 hours, but that’s the minimum). Now, fill in relaxation hours and time with family and friends. Use different colored highlighters to color-code activities like work, school, study, and socializing. Make copies of your week and post it in multiple places. Commit to staying on schedule and continue to plan your weeks as you move through your school program.

Utilize the other planning forms in the Picked Fresh section of this newsletter to plan study times and more.