Study skills > Module
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Time management and setting
goals
Time management
Time Management is setting and following a schedule of study in order to organise and prioritise your studies. This is done in the context of competing activities of work, family, leisure, etc.
Guidelines
- monitor your time
- reflect on how you spend your time
- be aware of when you are wasting your time
- know when you are productive
Planning and predicting completion
- have a "To Do" list. Write down things
you have to do, then decide what to do at the moment, what to schedule
for later, what to get someone else to do, and what to put off for a later
time period
- have a daily/weekly planner. Write down appointments,
classes, and meetings on a chronological log book or chart. Always know
what's ahead for the day, always go to sleep knowing you're prepared for
tomorrow
- have a long term planner. Use a monthly chart so
that you can always plan ahead. Long term planners also serve to remind
you to plan your free time constructively
Effective study schedule
- allow sufficient time for sleep, a well-balanced
diet, and leisure activities
- prioritise assignments
- prepare for discussion/recitation courses before
class
- schedule time to go over lecture material immediately
after class;
- remember: Forgetting is greatest within 24 hours
without review. Schedule fifty minute blocks of study
- choose a place free from distractions to study
- plan to use "dead time". Schedule as much
study time as possible during daylight hours
- schedule a weekly review
- be careful not to become a
slave to your schedule
Setting goals
Business people set goals all the time. So do athletes, and many
people set personal goals every New Year's Eve. But should you set
learning goals as well?
The answer here is Yes, of course, there's nothing
to lose! Setting goals, whether for each individual course
you take, or for study as a whole, is a valuable tool to maximise
what you will learn. Once you have goals in mind, you will find
yourself working harder to attain those goals. But you need to ensure
you are setting goals properly.
- make sure you set goals that you can realistically
reach. For example, striving to score 100% on every test you
take in every subject all year long is honorable, but not very probable.
Striving for a 75% average throughout the year may be more likely, depending
on where you are starting from.
- break your big goals up into small goals.
If what you really want is to pass the MOUS Word 2000 (your second
try at it), work first on getting through the course content, or the first
mock test, or the first exercise, or even getting through the first week
without dropping the course!
- set goals that you can measure in some way.
If you say that you want to do better in Excel 2000, it will be difficult
to say at the end of the course if that goal was achieved. Instead, say
you want to raise your skills from an ECDL level to a MOUS level, or from
a C+ to a B in some other subject.
- set a specific time-frame to achieve your
goals. Often study goals will be for the school year, or by the
semester, but some of them may be for a month, or even for the next two
or three years.
- finally, write your goals down. Then
you will be forced to be specific about them, you can refer to them throughout
the course, and you can see how you measured up in the end. It is a proud
feeling to set goals and achieve them.
- Click here to go to the 'goal setting' exercise
