Time management

As a  student, ever feel like there isn't enough time in the day to fit all of your studies, along with your social life, your job and sleep? Here are some tips to help with your time management!

Usually there are two problems when referring to time management...
Firstly, having too much work to do in such little time.
Secondly, not getting much done in plenty of time.

People believe that there is a direct relationship between study time and success rate, however this is  a myth. Unfortunately, students believe that by sitting with a book open in front of them this counts as revision, this just provides a false sense of learning. Quality overrides quantity in the sense that you could 'work' all day and remember little whereas you could spend two hours doing solid revision and this could improve your knowledge. The first step to improve time management is to identity the cause or causes of your problem. This could be anything from: Lack of focus, procrastination, task hoping, travelling, other demands outside of university life to difficulties with prioritisation.

However, it is YOUR duty to identify the cause and improve your time management. Here are some pointers that can be used to aid your time management:

Set daily goals - However they must be reasonable and practical aims rather that ambitious and vague ones.
Create a routine- STICK TO IT!
Divide tasks up into small, manageable components
Tackle small tasks first then progress to more complicated one later on
Study briefly and regularly- Information is being remembered through repetition.
Give yourself rewards
Give yourself time off
Participate in exercise
Create a timetable - This allows you to organise your time effectively
Negotiate study periods with other house members
Record deadlines for each semester in a planner
Review time spent on different subjects
Create work patterns that match your body clock- If you work better at night, work at night etc..
Set daily study priorities
End your study period by setting a task for the following day- Recap of your work

Remember it takes time and discipline to create a routine and follow it so have patience! Be prepared to try different approaches and REMEMBER to take control of YOUR time!