Learning Skills
How Do I Manage My Time?
Time management is a personal matter; however, the decisions you make about your time-use will have implications for your work, recreation, family life, community involvement and, of course, how you experience your university studies.
- What every student should know
- Time audit
- Taking time to plan
- Managing your study time
- Tools to help you plan
- Assignment planning
- Additional web resources
What every student should know
You have 168 hours in a week and need:
- 56 hours of sleep (7-8 hours each night are usually adequate)
- 8 – 10 hours of independent study for each enrolled subject
Ten out of every 24 hours are hours in which you’ll have to make decisions about what to do.
In principle, when deciding how to allocate your precious time:
- Plan regularly, say once each week
- Allow adequate chunks of time for learning new material, understanding theories and concepts, or drafting an assignment
- Break large tasks into a number of sub-tasks
- Remember that 20-30 minutes is the average concentration span
- Use short periods (15 minutes) when beginning or ending a scheduled study session to review previous learning
- Arise 15 minutes earlier and go to bed 15 minutes later each day
- Reward yourself for achieving daily and/or weekly study goals
- Timetable more challenging tasks for when you are most alert and able to concentrate
- Study regularly – daily if possible
- Be task orientated. Rather than just allocating 2 hours study each night, be specific about the study tasks to be done within the time available
- Set achievable study goals
Time audit
You may benefit from conducting a survey of how you currently use your time. Completing the table below can give you a more accurate estimate of the time you spend in typical activities and your time wasters each week.
Calculate the following:
| Number of hours of sleep each night | x 7 = |
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| Number of hours of personal grooming | x 7 = |
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| Number of hours travelling | x 7 = |
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| Number of hours for regular functions (e.g. sport, community, etc) | x 7 = |
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| Number of hours of work | x 7 = |
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| Number of hours socialising | x 7 = |
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| Other | x 7 = |
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Add up the totals |
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Subtract the total from 168 hours |
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The hours remaining are the hours you have allowed for study
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What did you learn about your time-use? Are you satisfied that you have sufficient time to dedicate to study? Do you need to lighten your load? Learn how to say no? More clearly identify your priorities?
Taking time to plan
Your time is limited and valuable so it makes sense to use the available time wisely. This is where a schedule/timetable can be useful. Creating a timetable can assist you by:
- Lessening any worrying about whether you have enough time
- Increasing your sense of control and flexibility
- Enabling you to align your time-use choices with your priorities
- Providing you with a basis for measuring your progress towards goals and priorities
- Allowing you to reflect on your time management and adjust according to insights.
Managing your study time
When developing your timetable for independent study consider the following:
- For each subject you are enrolled in allocate 8 – 10 hours study each week
- Begin major projects ahead of time – break the task into a number of sub-tasks
- Be realistic – for example if you are a ‘night owl’ planning to study in the early morning may be unrealistic
- Generally organise your timetable into 50 minutes study periods with 10 minutes breaks
- Be specific about what you want to achieve in each study period
- Be familiar with flexible reading techniques, such as surveying, for efficient study
Additional web resources
The following websites provide further information and have been used as a basis for the writing of this guide. You can google other sites by typing an apapropriate search term, but try to ensure they are reliable sites.
An extensive collection of downloadable handouts on time management, procrastination and effective strategies.
http://counseling.uchicago.edu/resources/virtualpamphlets/time_management.shtml
Time scheduling
http://www.utexas.edu/student/utlc/learning_resources/
How to manage time and workload over a semester
http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/onlib/time.html
Forms for conducting a time audit
http://www.d.umn.edu/student/loon/acad/strat/time_audit.html
Practice developing a schedule
http://www.studygs.net/timman.htm
Take a test to assess how well you plan
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/success/time.html