Time Management

TIME MANAGEMENT

By: Lucas Shubert

          The rigorous study of architecture is commonly referred to as architorture among its undergraduate students at Southern Illinois University. This kind of mindset is to be expected when they are required to spend an almost unbelievable amount of time out of class doing class work. This seems to be a universal condition for architecture students. I’m not sure why no one has ever tried to come up with a reasonable justification (other than saying “that’s how architecture school is”) for this; or perhaps tried to adjust the program or courses therein to match the time requirements of other ‘full-time student’ programs.  

       The whole idea of students enrolled in a school of architecture, or studio classes in general, spending many times the effort on their studies as students in various other programs has never made very much sense to me. But seeing as I’ve finished the undergraduate portion of my architecture career, my interest in reforming course-load is waning quickly. Instead, it seems much more productive to outline some of the (successful) ways I’ve tried to meet deadlines and keep on task over the last four to five years.

       The most important thing to me has been to have as clear a picture as possible at the beginning of the class what will be required of me throughout the class. Instructors attempt to create an outline of their expectations in the syllabus. But most of the time (especially in architecture classes), deadlines are shifted and whole project goals are left intentionally ambiguous. This can be problematic for a student trying to figure out what will be happening in his or her non-major classes at the time architecture projects are due. So it’s valuable to harass a teacher as much as possible as early as possible about exactly what he or she will be expecting twelve weeks from now.

        Working steadily day in and day out has never been a very successful strategy for me. I tend to be most productive over short, focused work sessions. The results of both methods can be the same, but someone working in bursts will most likely have a harder time fighting off procrastination as a deadline approaches if too much time passes between work sessions. Therefore, some early planning over when I intend to do large portions of my work has been beneficial throughout the years.

       And one thing that seems to plague architecture students is getting caught in the trap of choosing a design solution that he or she really doesn’t believe in and working on it for several weeks before deciding to change it. Doing this is always devastating to the workflow. The more time that passes before deciding to change a design, the less time there is afterward to complete the solution. However, knowing when to change a design concept is most likely only something one can learn through experience. That is all the time I have to talk about time management. Get it?