Time management tips

Every student tackles the problem of managing time differently. There is no one perfect method for managing your time that will enable you to easily mix work, social and study lives! However, below, we provide some time management tips gathered from students and faculty on our SCM programs.

Spend time on time management

The most important tip is that you actually invest time (at the start of the program) to consider how you manage your time. This investment will pay dividends in the short and long term, and improve your enjoyment of your studies. Read around the subject of time management and assess your time management 'techniques'. We provide links to reading material about time management in the Resources section.

Plan!

Think seriously about the programmer of study and spend time on planning. It is an investment that will pay off. Think of the your program of study (BA/BA, MBA, MS or executive program) as one long project! Use project management ideas (including the idea of slippage!!) to plan your progress through the study material. Include peak periods of study (assignments, residences, classes, examinations), work, and holidays in your schedule and make every attempt to follow it. Your plan will never be perfect and it will require revisions during the year. Buy yourself a 'wall planner' or produce your own wall plan. Place it where you study regularly and mark off items as you complete them (for example, a course paper).

Get organized

Time set aside for studying should be spent on the academic content of the programmer, not searching for text books or notes or assignment questions. So think about organizing both your study schedule and your work space..

Think in terms of 'blocks' of time

Try to divide your study sessions into 'blocks'. After each block, take a break. Non-stop study for long periods of time is counter productive, as you become tired and lose concentration. This is an integral part of knowing your own learning style.

"Each person has a time envelope in which he or she works most productively. Even if you have more time, going beyond that envelope without giving your body and mind a break will be less productive that stopping and returning after a break for the next envelope of productive time. For example, I know I can work best in 45 minute chunks of time. I then need about 10 minutes of moving around, thinking about something else, etc. Then when I go back for the next 45 minutes I get more accomplished by a long shot than had I just continued on past my envelope." Dr Shelly Valdez, MS-SCM Faculty

Set deadlines / cut-off points

Do not get stuck on undertaking one activity or task. For example, do not spend 30 hours on completing one paper. That reward / time investment scenario is inefficient. You would be better off spending 10 hours on the paper and scoring a 'B+' and 20 hours on other lessons, than 30 hours on the paper and scoring 'A-'.

Set yourself goals and rewards

Goals and targets help you to focus and provide you with something measurable with which to assess your time management plans. A goal could be to complete the first four papers before November, or to have completed all the reading for the first five units by January. Whatever goals you set, make sure that they are realistic and achievable, and promise yourself a reward if you attain them (for example, a weekend break or a trip to the theatre).

Don't forget to allocate time for relaxing

Very few people can study and work 100% of the time, nor should you need to. Always remember to take time out. Studying will become even harder (and less effective) if you lose all of your leisure time.

Be strict and disciplined

Saying "yes" to everyone is one thing that you must overcome. Family, friends and work colleagues must be made aware that you are studying and that means you must spend quality time on it. Discipline is also essential. Studying for 50 minutes and then having a ten-minute break is fine, but ensure that those 10 minute breaks don't stretch themselves!

Review

Try to review your ability to manage your time regularly. Did you meet the goals and targets you set? If not, what prevented you? Was there a particular reason, for example, a period of work that got in the way? If you did meet your goals, try to think about how you did it? Did you work in a particular way? Were you more organized than usual? Is there a particular time of day when you feel more able to study? Highlighting areas of strength and weakness and then acting on them will help you improve your time management.

Time Saving Tips

• Don't overdo it. It is hardly ever a sensible plan to work until you drop, and if you end up working in irregular and infrequent binges you'll inevitably under perform, to say nothing of that background feeling of being vaguely out of control.
• Pace yourself and establish a functional upper limit to the length of time you can
  concentrate before the effort starts to outweigh the benefits.
• Find strategies for dealing with the times when you know your concentration isn't going to hold up. Make a note of places you couldn't quite follow what you heard or read, so that you can come back to it when you're fresher.
• Look for a way to make it easy to get back into something you're reading even if you have to take a break. It can sometimes be helpful to force yourself to break off mid-chapter, mid-paragraph or even mid-idea, so as to make it easier to pick up the threads again later, rather than trying to plunge in 'cold' to a totally new topic or chapter. Find out what works for you.
• Find smaller tasks that will occupy you in 'between' times - e.g. that slightly-less-than-a- free-hour between two lectures. Maybe you're working on a particular article or book chapter, or are doing some practice at transcribing diphthongs, or whatever. But give yourself a task that can realistically be done in the time you allot yourself.
• Keep ahead of the game: as much as you can, try to read before the relevant lecture rather than after it. There's a world of difference between reading ahead and therefore having the ideas already formed in your mind when you hear the lecturer dissecting them, and on the other hand reading in a kind of 'remedial' way, to try to puzzle out what on earth was being talked about in a lecture you weren't really able to follow. It doesn't involve much more effort for this to work; it's just a question of getting the timing right.

The moral of the story: there's a world of difference between being on top of things and playing catch-up all the time, and keeping a watchful eye on how you make use of your own time can be enough to tip the balance the right way.

Resources

The following links provide some useful, general information and advice on time management.