Time Management!

Time Management!

When it comes to my schedule, I have a very hectic lifestyle, as well as college, I have a part time job that often turns

Time Management

into a 30/40 hour work week due to my managers calling me in for work after college. Due to this it becomes extremely hard balancing work and college at the same time as well as trying to fit in some me time, but due to my work ethic and schedule, I know it’s possible. I sometimes try to complete the assignment or task assigned almost immediately. I believe this works best for me as it relieves some of the pressure on me. As I am human I often fall behind and see myself doing last minute assignments quite a lot due to my job, “part time job”. I really like what Shaun has mentioned about changing your schedule on a particular week. I've had to do more work on certain days in a week as I had another assignment due later on and work on the same day. Learning from my past mistakes, I have learned to always try and split a large task into parts across a period of time and to say NO to work when asked to do more hours than I can.

I love how Shaun has laid the whole semester out for us, all 12 weeks are there for us. This means if I get a week where I may not be busy I can work ahead for a week or two, which is brilliant! If I am busy one week and can’t get the work done, there won’t be any issues as I can catch up in my own time, that is if I am not already ahead. It is really convenient for someone like me as I have a hectic lifestyle. I also completed a lot of extra credit work last year, this was very helpful as I really like staying ahead and active for my modules. Extra credit also helps me to enjoy the module, outside of assignments. If I do miss an assignment or submit it late, extra credits are very useful in helping me to get back on track. They are our saviours.

Time

The Psychology of Checklists by Lauren Marchese

As Lauren Marchese states, I find nothing more satisfying than completing a checklist. I get a sense of drive after I tick off a task on my checklist, this makes me feel accomplished in my mind that I am getting work done. Often I feel like I’m wasting my time and just messing around, having a checklist really helps getting my work done. Lauren has an acronym SMART. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound. Breaking the task into SMARTS keeps the tasks manageable whilst also keeping them impactful to the larger objective. I find that using this method is a very useful and beneficial way for getting work done, I will definitely be using this in the future. 

How To Build A Realistic Study Plan That You’ll Actually stick to by Amanda Collins

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made an unrealistic schedule and haven’t followed it! As Amanda “it can be easy to underestimate or overestimate” your workload, this is a prime example of how I lose track of my plan. It can be easy to lose track of your schedule once you start to implement it, I’ve found it really helpful to adjust my timetable as time goes on, I make sure I am adjusting and not just following blindly. I find that using a timetable keeps me “disciplined” and keeps me “accountable” of my time! Upon reading Amanda’s blog, I have realised that keeping my work sessions to a maximum length of one hour would do me more benefit rather than working for countless hours. I’ve found that working in long hours without break can be demotivating and less productive. I have learned that it will also do me good if I make a daily and a weekly plan, this will keep my schedule up to date rather than creating a schedule for a month at a time.

And that's it for this blog post, thanks for reading!