Managing your time successfully
Managing your time successfully
Introduction
At university, you will spend most of your time working on your own. This offers opportunities for using the bulk of your time in ways that suit your personal preferences. Some people prefer to study early in the morning, while others prefer to study in the middle of the night. However, there are risks associated with this:
• feeling there is more time available than there is
• not developing sufficient structure to your time to ensure you get everything done
• missing deadlines - tutors do not accept excuses for missed deadlines.
The secret of successful time management is to make the most effective and efficient use of your available time.
Objectives
• Practise ways of avoiding wasting time
• Provide opportunities for improving your time management skills
• Look at ways of prioritising your time
Activity 1: What do you do with your time?
When looking to manage your time, a good place to begin is by finding out what you do with your time.
Instruction
Download the following blank timetable. Fill in the last two or three days with how you spent your time. Once you have done this, circle the things that you did that you think were a waste of time, or ask a friend to do it for you.
Activity 2: Improving your time management skills
In order to improve your time management skills, it is important to consider when you work best and be prepared for the unexpected.
Instruction
Decide which of the following statements are true and which are false.
You should write all lectures, seminars, tutorials and exam dates in a diary, and refer to it.
You should do challenging work when you feel alert, not when you feel tired.
You should study in chunks of time and, as a guide, take a 10 minute break every hour you study as this will help your concentration.
You should be prepared for the unexpected to happen. Don’t panic if you have to change your study plans.
You should keep a balance between studying and leisure time and don’t neglect either.
You should set yourself early deadlines and build in extra time in case the work takes longer than expected.
Activity 3: Prioritisation
You will have a number of things to do at the same time at university. Probably, at the end of term you will have several assignments to hand in, as well as presentations to give. Not forgetting your buzzing social life, and that dentist appointment you have put off for the last 2 years. The difficulty will be juggling each of these and deciding which to do first and which to leave until the last minute.
Instruction
When you prioritise tasks, you usually make a list of things you need to do. To help you prioritise, it is a good idea to label each of the activities A, B, C depending on how important or urgent they are.
• A = This needs to be done – important and urgent
• B = You'd better do this soon – important but not urgent
• C = Do, if you have the time – not important, not urgent
Look at the following tasks label each task A, B or C
1. You have to complete an essay by the end of next week.
2. You are not feeling well, you think you might have caught a bug or a virus. You should go to the doctor.
3. You are organising a trip away for your friends, and you have to book the tickets.
4. You are giving a presentation in two weeks time which you need to prepare for.
5. You need get some books out of the library for next week’s seminar.
Would you like to review the main points?
© David Donnarumma, Brunel University, 2008