Time Management Skills to Help you ace Your Studies
To make the most of your course, there are certain skills you have to learn. One of them is managing your time effectively. Not only is it important for your education, this skill teaches you to keep up in our fast-paced world. Here are some time management tips to help you ace your studies.
- Plan ahead
- Set goals
- Don’t multitask
- Prioritise
- Get rid of distractions
- Take breaks
- Reward yourself
Plan Ahead
Planning ahead helps you avoid doing tasks at the last minute. Create a study schedule that suits you and the responsibilities you have. Work on your assignments long before they are due to prevent stress. Too much stress can cause procrastination, which is the last thing you need when you have a heavy academic workload.
Set Goals
Setting goals automatically helps you with time management. This is because it forces you to create a deadline you want to work towards and then do the necessary work in between. Short term, realistic goals work best to help you form good time-planning habits.
Don’t Multitask
Multitasking actually makes you less productive. Dividing your attention is not an effective way to learn. You should rather focus on finishing one assignment at a time. This helps you to produce work of higher quality, because you’ve given it your full attention.
Prioritise
Create a to-do list of everything that needs to be done. The “A-B-C” method is great for prioritising. It looks something like this:
A – Must be done today
B – Could be nice to finish today
C – Can be finished tomorrow if necessary
Get rid of Distractions
This is a tough one, but once you master getting rid of distractions, you’ll be well on your way to acing your studies! Technology is one of the most popular ways to waste time. So put down your phone and sit far away from the TV while you study or do assignments. You’ll find that you end up finishing much faster, giving you more time to focus on other responsibilities.
Take Breaks
There are many pros to taking a break while studying. It is very important to give your brain a chance to rest. If you don’t, you’ll actually end up wasting time because you lose focus. There is nothing more frustrating than having to redo your work after realising it doesn’t make sense. So take some time away from your books and go for a walk or take a short nap.
Reward Yourself
Give yourself something to look forward to by creating rewards. This can be any enjoyable activity such as an outing with friends or a night in binge-watching your favourite show. Rewards act as motivation to complete your work. So tell yourself that if you study extra hard during the week, you’ll do something fun over the weekend.