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Time management

Watch Lina and Hayder discuss how they manage their own workload when studying and the importance of being flexible with your time.
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The University is going to provide you a timetable, but you can do your own timetable. For example, before each class you can go through the material, and after you can do a recall session of each class. Try to cut the deadlines in little chunks. Don’t let all the things until the last minute. There are two reasons why time management is important. The first one is reduce the stress. When you don’t have control of your time, it’s easy to end up feeling rushed and overwhelmed as if you lost an hour of your time. You will never get it back. The second reason why the time management is important– because you can do more with less efforts.
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When you take control of your time, you improve your ability to achieve more with less effort. Even when sometimes you have troubles, you have to adapt to all the things that happen. Be kind with yourself. And don’t forget, be positive. Sometimes, things will never go as planned. So just take a break. Assess what went wrong, rethinking about how to redo it again and avoiding the mistakes. You have to know yourself. In my case, I’m a morning person, so I have to try the things that are my priority during the mornings. You can do something similar. For myself, I do like to plan in advance as I prefer to break big tasks to multi small units.
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And once I’ve achieved a big target, I do like to reward myself by getting a cup of tea, an ice cream, go for a holiday once I’ve achieved a big target.

Managing your time effectively is critical to success, because it will have an impact on the grades you receive for coursework and in exams. On taught courses you’ll have deadlines for assignments, and you’ll find that if you don’t meet a deadline, you will lose marks, unless you have a valid reason.

You’re also expected to work independently to some extent, and on some courses you may be expected to do this for most of your study time. You may find that you’re having to work on several assignments at the same time, so managing your time can become complicated. Many PhD students work independently almost all the time.

In this video Lina and Hayder talk about the reasons for managing their time effectively. They talk about planning their own timetable, including time to relax, and emphasising the need for flexibility when plans have to change.

Post your responses to the questions below and take a look at what others have to say.

  • Do you leave yourself plenty of time to do things, or do you leave things to the last minute?

  • What strategies do you have for managing your time effectively?

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