While you are studying on your university course there will be many competing demands made on your time so it is important that you know how to manage your time effectively.
In these activities, you will consider your own use of time, in general, and
practise planning how to use your study time in the most effective way.
It is useful to have some awareness of your own approach to time and how you use it. This can help you plan when to carry out your study activity.
Write a sentence in the box below that describes what kind of person you are when it comes to using your time.
Now decide which of the following statements apply to you and select the tick symbol if they do and the cross symbol if they do not.
I'm a late night person.
I'm an early morning person.
I'm a multi-tasker; I like doing lots of things at the same time.
I'm methodical and record all my commitments in my diary.
I try to do too many things and never manage everything I plan for.
I set aside particular times for certain activities (e.g. shopping on Saturday
mornings).
I do things when I can; some days I get more done than others.
I usually feel that there is not enough time in the day; lots of unexpected
things crop up.
I do my work on the living room table with the T.V. on.
I've noticed that I become more efficient if I have less time.
Consider what you wrote in the box at the beginning of this activity again. Do you think your responses to these statements are consistent with the sentence you wrote about yourself?
Whatever your approach to your time, problems with time management in your study life will almost certainly be concerned with one of the following:
When you need to give time to your independent study and course work, there may be a conflict with the time you need to commit to other things in your life.
Think for a moment and identify the kinds of commitment that might compete with study time in your life. Then read the comment.
Knowing how you use your time and identifying what other demands on your time you have are important as they represent the first step towards planning how to manage the time you have available for study efficiently.
To study effectively you will need to set aside specific periods of time for it. This means that you will need to decide when you are going to study independently and how you will balance this with other commitments such as timetabled lectures and weekly shopping trips. Some compromises may be necessary, and this is where you will need to strike a fine balance: sacrificing social commitments completely, for example, is not a good idea for your general well-being. Neither is studying all the time a good idea, as you will tend to work less effectively if you never take time to relax.
Use the weekly time-planning chart below to plan your activities for one week, taking into consideration your study tasks and any other commitments. Open the chart and complete it, thinking about the following questions as you do so:
Weekly time-planning chart (Word doc, 29KB). You may wish to print this document.
Thinking about your study commitments in terms of short and long-term goals can help you to manage your time better. Planning a timetable for these can be helpful in terms of setting and achieving such goals. In this activity you will practise identifying some short and long-term goals and plan how you can work towards achieving some of your own.
First consider the difference between short-term goals and long-terms goals. Divide the goals below into two types by dragging and dropping them into the appropriate box. Then check your answers and read the comment.
Think about your own goals and complete these sentences:
One long-term goal that I have is to .
One short-term goal that I have is to .
Once you have defined a study goal, you need to consider the period of time required to achieve it. This is particularly important for short-term goals and involves identifying a range of smaller tasks that are required. You may want to break short-term goals down even further by defining the amount of time that you should give to each sub task.
What do you think might be the advantages of planning to this level of detail?
Here is an example of how a study goal has been broken down into sub-tasks. Examine it and then make a similar plan for one of your own goals.
Individual goal planner (Word doc, 31KB). You may wish to print this document.