Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. -- Walter Bagehot

We kick off our Surviving College series this week. Tune in every day for tips on everything from time management to getting on your professor's good side. Whether you're a Freshman or a seventh-year undergrad, there's something useful in here for you.

Today we start with: time management. It's a term many people dread, because most of us just aren't good at it. Unfortunately, it's the one skill that can make or break your academic--and even social--success in college.

The kicker about time management? It's amazingly simple once you get the steps down. Much as we do with computers and attempts to try anything new, we build time management up to be much more difficult than it really is.

And you can only use the dead grandmother excuse so many times. Why not just make it easier on yourself?

This may sound stupidly simple, but you'd be surprised at the number of people who don't do this: write things down.

When your head is buzzing with a million things to do, it's easy to feel so overwhelmed that you don't do any of them. Writing them down makes them much less scary, and once you begin your way down the list, it gets easier.

Again, seemingly simple but often neglected: include your academic, social, and professional requirements in a schedule that you follow.

Colleague and Computer Science Professor Ralph Phillips had this to offer: "Every day, I see my students put their job hours on their weekly schedule. Why not do the same thing for your classes and assignments? Put everything you have to do in that same schedule and follow it. You wouldn't just not show up at your job, so why should you miss class or let an assignment slip?"

Know when you are most productive. This is crucial. Everyone has had the experience of spending a frustrating three hours stuck on a paper, only to come back later and whiz through it in one. Everyone's time clock is different, and there are times of the day when your brain is at its best.

For years I tried to maintain a 'normal' schedule, but I finally had to acknowledge that I do my best work late at night, and move on from there. Once I accepted that, it freed up several hours during the day when I would have wasted time trying to concentrate. Listen to your body; it knows you well.

Have several resources available. Access to the Internet makes information amazingly easy to find these days. Trust me; I had to search for books in a dusty library and pore over endless pages of scientific journals with tiny print and poor organization in college. Students today have it good. Surf around one day and bookmark all the sites you find most helpful. Arrange them into different folders by class. Next time you're writing a paper or studying for a test, you'll have help right in front of you without having to search. Searching is much more frustrating when you're facing a deadline.

One of my students, Jesse Hayes, was kind enough to share what he has learned. Now a sophomore, Jesse had to repeat several classes from his freshman year. With better organizational and time management skills, this is what he considers the best piece of advice: "Work first, then fun. When you're doing your work, you have something fun to look forward to. And when you're out at a party or hanging with your friends, you won't be distracted by worrying about what you don't have done."

Wise advice.

Below is a list of resources with an excellent array of tips, activities, and quizzes designed to make you a time management expert. So go ahead and check them out...if you have time.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/success/time.html

http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/studev/skills.htm

http://www.academictips.org/acad/timemanagement.html

http://www.uni.edu/walsh/linda7.html