Using Gen AI to Help with Time Management

Time management is an important skill to develop, especially for students balancing school, work, and personal life. 

Spending a few minutes to populate your calendar can save you a lot of time down the road. When you have a visual representation of your plans, you are more likely to be on track and less likely to lose time trying to figure out what to do next. 

When planning out each day, remember to schedule regular breaks.  

Linking Your AI Chatbot with Your Calendar 

AI tools are particularly helpful when you connect them to your digital calendars. For instance, Microsoft Copilot can be linked to your Outlook Calendar and Google Gemini can be linked to your Google Calendar.  

Depending on your preferred AI tool, the linking process may be different, so consult your tool’s official website to synchronize your calendars.  

Sample prompts if your AI tool is connected to your calendar: 

• “What are the assignments due this week?”
• “Show me a list of my exams this month.”
• “Find a time in my schedule to fit a 3-hour meeting with my group members.” 

Using AI to Help with Time Management 

AI can help you collect and organize the data you need to evaluate your priorities, but it should not determine your priorities for you. Think about what matters to you and how you want to balance your work, school, and personal life. You should also learn how to evaluate and prioritize tasks based on various factors like scope, duration, purpose, and impact. 

Here are a few things you can ask gen AI to help you with: 

• “Give a rough estimate of how long this assignment will take”
• “Break this project down into smaller milestones”
• “Suggest a personalized timeline to tackle all these tasks”
• “Create a detailed checklist for this assignment”
• “I am running behind schedule. Help me reorganize my calendar to stay on track and finish on time.” 

Conclusion 

The best way to use Gen AI is to encourage your own thinking, even when it is about time management. Use it to help you carefully evaluate how you use your time. Automating your schedule may give you direction, but choosing what to do, when to do it, and how you do it maintains your agency. 

Lastly, although AI can help you decide what tasks to prioritize, it does not know what is most important in your life. Neither should AI determine what is important for you.  

For a more detailed overview, check out our AI For time management handout.