A matter of time
Time management is an essential skill for achieving goals effectively. We can’t always control our time, but there are a few things we can do to manage it and use it in our favor:
The right environment
Everyone has a study environment that suits them – with friends or alone, in the library, at a cafe or in a room at home, with loud music or complete silence. Morning or night. Experiment and learn which environment makes you most effective.
To Do List:
- To release mental and emotional load – write down your tasks on whatever platform works for you: a notebook, your phone or your computer.
- Prioritize the tasks by urgency and importance
- Next to each task, note when it needs to be finished (due date)
- Keep the list available and in front of you throughout the day
- When you finish a task, mark it as “done” – it’s such a good feeling that it will encourage and strengthen you as you take on the next goals!
Planning a schedule –
- In a weekly (or even monthly) planner, write down all your fixed commitments, including your class schedule, work, exercise, volunteering and even long trips home.
- Mark on the planner the hours dedicated to studying at home
- Slot the tasks into the planner – according to their due dates.
- Break large tasks into smaller parts, and slot them in according to each one’s due date.
Setting time frames
- When you allocate time for a task, take into account the size of the task, your work pace and your ability to stay focused and efficient. It’s recommended to add extra time to all of these, just in case.
- Get to know the “Pomodoro Technique”: in this method you work with a timer close at hand. Set it to 25 minutes of work and a 5-minute break. After two hours of work, rest for half an hour. And repeat
- It’s important to set times for breaks too – when to start and when to finish. You can plan what to do during breaks – eat, meet friends, walk the dog.
- Set an end time for your workday as well – leave yourselves uninterrupted time for leisure and family life, and of course for good nutrition and sleep.
Neutralize distractions
- While sitting down to study, you can neutralize the distraction of your phone by limiting screen time in your phone settings or restricting apps using dedicated applications (Forest, Study Bunny)
- It’s also recommended to turn off notifications on your computer, pop-up messages and websites (Cold Turkey)
Reducing stress
- Start / end your day in a way that’s good for you – music, a walk, stretching, meditation…
- Break big tasks into small sub-tasks to make completing the task easier to handle. This way you can reduce load and stress and experience a sense of success.
- Starting a task can be hard – find someone to sit with, at least at the beginning. It can be in class, at home, in the library or even on Zoom.
Look on the bright side
Don’t be hard on yourselves at the end of the day if you didn’t get everything done. Take a deep breath and give yourselves credit for what you did manage to do – not for what you didn’t. Treat every experience as a learning opportunity that will help you do better next time.