You have just been hired by Mr and Dr Salazar to help their

You have just been hired by Mr. and Dr. Salazar to help their son, Alejandro improve his grades in college. Alejandro already has 3 mentors helping him in his subjects, so you don\'t have to worry about the content material of those classes. The mentors review what he has studied and written already. Mr. and Dr. Salazar are making Alejandro pay for half of the mentor costs until he improves his grades. However, Alejandro seems to have some other issues that you might be able to help with. On Weekends, Alejandro catches up with his friends to play indoor soccer and go snowboarding. He\'s not in any leagues or any formal teams, it\'s just something he enjoys doing. Every day of the week, he spends 3 hours at the gym. Most of his weekend friends are also at the gym, so his workouts tend to also coincide with catching up and talking about their plans. Alejandro takes 5 classes, all 3-credits each. He is supposed to see his mentors every weekday for an hour, but he usually goes every other day because he doesn\'t have that much time. Alejandro also is a bartender on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights. He prefers mid-week hours because there are fewer customers. He can work 4pm-midnight these nights and makes OK money for those 24 hours worked. He doesn\'t make much on tips due to low numbers. Besides, his friends can come in those days and it\'s usually pretty quiet, so he can catch up with them at work as well. There are open shifts on the other days of the week, but they are the 8pm-midnight shifts and there are more than twice the number of customers on those nights. Alejandro is interested in a career in Computer Aided Design (CAD). He spends more time on his smartphone and his tablet than he does on his computer, though. He\'s very good at social media and has thousands of followers on Twitter, hundreds of friends on Facebook, and thousands of followers on Instagram and Snapchat. He\'s on another 5 social media sites with very good numbers of \"connections\" and \"friends\" as well. Alejandro is constantly uploading photos, videos, and clever updates. After all, he wants to keep his followers happy, right? Alejandro also has a 3-D printer, which is quite handy for someone in the CAD program, however, he has only used it once. He says, \"it takes too long.\" Two programs have openings for internships: one is about 5 miles from his home and offers 20 hours a week in a tech company; the other is about 20 miles from his home and offers 10 hours a week in a program working with middle school students interested in computers. Both applications are in his room somewhere and require an essay as well as one recommendation from someone not related to him. Alejandro never started the application. He\'s more visual when it comes to those types of things. \"Besides, they\'ll probably want me to use my 3-D printer for stuff.\" Alejandro is single and not really looking to be in a relationship...unless he finds the right person. There is a girl in his Math course, but she\'s always going to some Math study group on Mondays. There is another girl in his Writing course, but she\'s a peer mentor and has to work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays while Alejandro is bartending. Alenjandro\'s classes only meet Monday-Thursday. He goes to all of his classes, but usually just listens in class. When asked to do group work, he\'ll join a group, but never has any notes to help the group. Alejandro doesn\'t take notes in the groups either. If you look at his books, almost every line is highlighted. He says he skims through and highlights everything so he can go back and study it the night before the test. Alejandro won\'t study on the weekends. \"That\'s my time to relax,\" he says. \"I\'m busy all week and never have time to do anything, so I\'ll hang out on the weekends.\" Alejandro usually has about an hour on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays to study after class and before work. On Thursdays, he has about 8 hours to study, but he usually is listening to music, texting, doing his social media, watching TV and eating at the same time he\'s studying. One week, he might focus on one or two classes, and the next week, he\'ll focus on the others. He says this helps him spend more time on one subject instead of spreading them all out. Fridays, he wakes up around 11:30am, catches up on any shows he missed out on, and will study from about 5-7pm while he eats and his parents watch the news. This is the time he is usually trying to memorize everything, but it\'s often interrupted by his drawing and sketching that he does on the paper and in the books. Alejandro\'s books have a lot of text in them. Some of them have space in the margins to write in and all of the books have questions at the end of the sections/chapters that he ignores: \"It\'s not part of the reading,\" he says. Alejandro has a nice white board in his room, a TV, video games, a large desk with clothes all over it, his computer, a bed, and a giant walk-in closet. His 3-D printer is in the family\'s office space next to the family room with the 50\" TV. Using what you have learned so far, your job is to maximize Alejandro\'s time and study habits so he can improve his grades. Please highlight 5 specific changes you would have Alejandro make to help him with his time and studying. Please describe the reasons behind your recommendations. Each recommendation should be at least one paragraph in length.

Solution

After reading the entire Alejandro time table and all work schedules, his interest and activities, looks like Alejandro is doing a lot of multi -tasking and since he is studying as well as working it is becoming tough for Alejandro to improve on his grades. So, he will need to focus on certain things. They are

We see that Alejandro is very much active on social media and he spends a lot time on social networking which is not really worth it when he is doing so much multi-tasking. He will need to reduce time he spends on social networking. He can dedicate some time a day or 2 in a week and utilize the time productively for studying. He is so much interested in socializing but due to time constraint he will need to reduce the time he spend on the social networking.

Alejandro is not regular to the classes due to the work pressure. He will need to sit and analyse why he is not able to attend the classes. He has an option to take any shifts at work. There are 3 shifts which he can take up. So, he will need to be wise here and choose the shift which is suitable for him and helps to attend the classes regularly and make notes in the classes which he is not doing right now. Highlighting and skimming through in the classes and studying later is not enough. If he start making the notes and studying the same night makes him perfect.

Alejandro mentions that Monday and Wednesday he has 1hr and Thursday he has 8hrs. Also he mentions that entire week he is busy and weekends he will hangout. This shows how much time he is wasting. Even week days also he has time he is not using it wisely. In the entire 8hrs on Thursday he can use at least 5hrs for study and remaining 3hrs he can enjoy and the same applies on weekend also. Use 4 -5 hours on weekend for study and rest he can enjoy. Like this he will get more than 10 hours to study which is very beneficial for him to improve the grades.

Also Alejandro spends a lot of time for friends whether it is gym, during work, in class’s again social sites. He will need to limit himself in meeting friends. However he meets his friends in the gym and during work also. He need not specifically spend time for friends again. He can utilize that time and invest in studying.

More than everything Alejandro will need to have a time table for each day including week end. Every day he will need to make a note of study time, work hours and remaining time he can leave it for socializing, meeting friends and any other activity he wants to do. Also he needs to change the way he is attending the classes. Missing out on classes is not a good idea. He will need to attend all the classes in a week. Dividing the classes week wise may lead to missing out on topics and when he attends the class he would not be able to connect what is being taught. He can dedicate time for each of the classes that help him to memorise many things.