4 Vital Time Management and Studies tips, bet you haven’t heard these before Shhh, they’re a secret.
BySo the semester is off and running. For me much like New Year’s resolutions there is the initial resolve to manage everything and have a very productive semester.
But then reality would set in and I’d find it easier to put the dates down for when things were due and not planning for the time it would take me to actually complete the projects. I ended up wasting time like the Doctor in the video.
Today I want to help you avoid making the same mistakes I did. I learned a few things that most will not tell you. But they are essential to managing your time and getting good grades.
Grab some paper or your computer keyboard and let’s help simplify things a bit for you.
Vital: First analyze where you spend your time, at the end of a couple of days jot down where you spent your time so you can see where you’re losing the most time.
1. Plan and organize your week, month, semester, this is a tentative schedule but this will give you an idea when assignments are due, and which ones are due at the same time or close to so that you are aware and prepared. Pull all of your syllabi together and get a calendar and enter the assignments and dates on the calendar.
Beside each main assignment jot down a quick note to yourself about what the assignment is. This way you can easily see what you have due and what it’s about, and just beside the short note, put a time, how long you see this assignment taking you. For example if it’s a reading assignment and you read quickly then put down a short amount of time or so, say 20 minutes to half an hour.
Hint: After you have outlined your assignments, plan for each activity at the beginning of each week, If you’ve mapped out the large tasks refresh your memory each week, perhaps on a Sunday evening as you get ready for a new week.
2. Prioritize, what is important look at what you have to turn in to your professor this week then put these on the forefront of your to do list or list of priorities. Also look at how much each assignment is worth towards your grade, those that are not worth much in the overall class don’t focus on this as much. Focus your efforts on what is weighed more heavily, like projects and tests etc.
Here’s the truth: there are some class assignments that want you to do a lot of work for a particular assignment but the assignment itself is not worth much to your grade. Put most of your efforts into knowing the important objectives for the class and completing the major assignments. This way you won’t find yourself overwhelmed and not able to focus on the important objectives. The assignments which are not worth as much are busy work, find out what you need to turn in and make sure this is what you focus on.
Example of a hidden secret that you won’t find many, if any, places. Believe it or not the midterm exam may not be worth much to your grade. Look at your Syllabus and see what it is worth. I’ve seen too many students focus like crazy on the midterm, stressing, and losing sleep and overall drained. But the grade was not going to change much if you get a B or C instead of an A on the midterm. Unfortunately often these same students didn’t do so well on the projects which were worth a large part of the class grade because they were so very focused on the midterm which really made very little difference in the overall grade. Look at the syllabus; this will help you understand what to focus on most.
3. Procrastinate put aside things which do not need your immediate attention. Have you been accused of procrastinating? Well if so here’s the best part for you. Take a look at what is the most important thing for you to focus on right away and put the other things on the back burner. Yes procrastinate on some of the less important tasks and assignments. Now don’t procrastinate on the important ones this will only cause a huge headache on your part later.
4. Practice, just take one day at a time and do it.
- Look at what you need to do for each day, the days you have less work quickly through these and carve out a few minutes to work on the bigger ones.
- When you are studying, make sure you are able to focus. Make sure the time of day is the best for you, For me I work best at night or later afternoon. I attempted to get up early and study and ended up either reading the same thing 10 times and still not sure what I was reading, or I’d fall asleep. So I quickly learned that studying early is not the best idea for me.
- Be sure that you have a place where you can work undisturbed. And this means making sure your mind is not thinking about unimportant things at that point.
- Determine to focus on just what you’re studying. This is something I’ve found that is often easier for men than women. Guys have an easier time just focusing one objective at a time.
- Women tend to have a number of different things going on in their mind at all times, so this will take discipline to determine that while you’re studying this is all that you’re doing. This is so true for me, it’s not easy but it’s critical to your success.
- Time yourself, see how quickly you can get through an assignment and then quiz yourself.
- Ask questions like what was the most important aspect of what you just did?
- Did you remember the objectives do you know them or did you just do them? Know them.
More Practical ways to learn:
If you find you’re not quite sure when you went through the assignment quickly, then summarize what you need to do, and what exactly you need to learn before you begin. Make sure not to devote too much time to this only a couple of minutes at most, and then jump into the assignment making sure that you have the summary or objectives handy so that you can be sure you cover these.
If you know you’re working on a subject that is not your strong point, work with someone else and divide the work up into sections so that each of you is able to focus on a particular part, get together and teach the other person what you’ve learned, this will both solidify the information in your mind and when you’re learning from someone who is working alongside you there is a fresh perspective things that you may not have thought of which makes the lesson or task manageable.
Now this can be a virtual arrangement, when I was taking classes in my masters degree it worked out better for me to take classes online so a phone call, e-mail, chat, or IM, like Skype, they have a Great FREE service for phone calls and online chatting, was a great way to facilitate this.
One last thing, have fun with it, don’t make time management like a dreaded class assignment. One of the best ways to learn to manage your time is to play. Yes play games there are free games online that will help you manage your time.
Check these out.
- http://games-free-online.net/?a=management
- http://www.shockwave.com/online/time-management-games.jsp
- http://www.gamehouse.com/online-time-management-games
If you found this post helpful please pass it on, Digg, it Tweet it, and please let me know what you think. Do you have questions and things you’d like me to address feel free to ask in the comment section. I’ll be sure to answer these for you.
Sophie
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