Time Management
"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."
~ Abraham Lincoln
Good time management concerns good planning and a good understanding of your learning habits. Allocate the time of a day to important work when you know you typically have high concentration power. Assign the time when you typically have a low energy level to less important activities.
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While a semester seems long in duration, calculate the total amount of time you can actually spend on your study in general or a particular subject. You may discover that, after counting the time for other activities, you do not have many hours left for your self-study of the subject. The semester-long duration easily creates an illusion many people are subject to. Try to free yourself from this illusion. Manage your time wisely by planning.
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When you plan to complete an assignment, always aim at a time before the official deadline. This can create a buffer time zone in your plan. Even if you fail to meet your target, you can still likely meet the official deadline because of the buffer time zone you have creatively established for yourself. In short, take action early and complete the tasks early, whenever possible.
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Time management does require the application of skills and planning.
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Many people could not distinguish between nominal time and actual time they might spend on the study. For example, some might think that they could always afford to waste the daytime and make up the study time at night. But the fact is that, when you reach the nighttime, you are already too tired because of your daytime activities. Your energy level could drop significantly so much so that the actual time you can spend at night for your study is much shortened. Poor performance is often a result of poor time management.
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Poor time management arises because people often overestimate their energy level for study and underestimate the use of energy in other activities on the same day.
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Good time management does not mean spending all the time at work. Give yourself a break or buy a little thing as a token of appreciation. This sort of self-encouragement is crucial for sustaining your efforts to have good time management.
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To have study pals is good too. If you lag behind the schedule, your peers could alert you to it, and vice versa.
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A group of PolyU students were inspired by a secret tool of Doraemon's and have creatively designed a mobile app that aims to solve the problem of procrastination in submitting term papers. You can check out their video. You may also creatively strategize your time management with reference to the extended tasks and questions below.
Extended tasks and questions
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1. Conduct pre-class preparation for a lecture on a weekly basis. Note the week
when you fail to do the pre-class preparation. Find out the reasons and
address the issues. Then, resume the pre-class preparation. See how many
weeks you succeed in your pre-class preparation. Learn from your own
success and apply your knowledge for the future.
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2. Wake up one hour early in the morning and spend the quiet time
solely for studying. Count how many hours you could have earned in a
semester.
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3. Foster the habit of checking your course schedule regularly and
keep the deadlines of assignments not only on your calendar but also in your
mind clearly.
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4. Conceive the time you need to spend for the completion of an assignment.
Think backwards and check when you should start working. This backward
thinking from the deadline to the start date of work will give you a realistic
picture of time management.
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5. Recall the most serious case of missing the deadline for an assignment in the
past. Make a vow that you will never commit such a blunder again. Then,
figure out new measures to have good time management. For instance, find
out certain mobile apps that facilitate the reduction of time for using your
mobile phone so that you can more effectively concentrate on your
study.
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