Top Tips for Time Management — video resource
Introduction
Do you ever feel that you’re busy all the time but that you’re not getting anything done? Do you find yourself rushing between urgent demands and day-to-day tasks, whilst struggling to find time for relaxation or working towards your long-term goals? Or do you find yourself procrastinating — doing hobbies, socialising, but putting off urgent tasks until the last minute?
Time management is difficult for everyone, and it takes continual effort to find a balance between fulfilling the urgent demands of life and having enough time to relax or work towards your personal goals. This is particularly challenging when you have just started university and moved into a new environment while managing a whole host of new responsibilities. Managing your time is simply using your time effectively to achieve your short and long-term goals whilst maintaining your wellbeing.
Managing your time whilst at University can be overwhelming. It can often seem like you should be doing everything to make the most of the ‘University Experience’: studying, increasing your employability, taking part in societies, a part-time job or volunteering, and having an active social life all at once, whilst adapting to a new environment and lifestyle! Every student develops different time management strategies that work for them. Hopefully, you’ll find some of these tips by the Student Team useful!
Here are our tips for managing your time. You can watch them in our video here, or if you prefer to read them, just scroll down to read the whole post.
If you are unable to access the video, you could do so at the following link:
https://video.manchester.ac.uk/faculties/bcc8b49050452a9e9e44be96f0a45700/4c6baf08-75fe-495f-9253-4e3f1ac5b53a/
Why do we struggle with time management, and how can this be managed?
Time management is a difficult skill to develop. In order to make progress, you first need to find out why you’re struggling with managing your time — and this could be for many reasons. Some of these reasons are highlighted below.
Challenge 1: Underestimating the time it takes to complete a task
One of the most common reasons why students struggle with managing their time is because they underestimate how long a task will take to complete. For example, when a new assignment is handed out, people tend to underestimate how long it will take them to complete it because they think that they’ve had enough experience writing assignments. However, each task is different and has the capacity to present you with new challenges, which could end up taking longer than expected to fix. Also, most university students have to juggle multiple things at the same time. Staying on top of your coursework, having a job, making sure that you are taking proper care of yourself by cooking, playing sports and socialising can mean that your timetable is really full.
Management Strategy — Start early
For assignments, getting started early is often the best thing you can do, as it will give you a head start on deciding how you want to go about it. This will give you more time to think and get the best ideas out. It’s futile waiting for motivation to come to you — you’ll be waiting for ages! If you can make a start on something, motivation will come naturally and then things will get easier.
‘I try to allow at least a few days before the deadline to get the whole assignment finished to mitigate for or accommodate any curveballs that life likes to occasionally throw at us.’ — Olivia, PhD Psychology
If things don’t quite go to plan and you find yourself having to do the assignment at the last minute, it’s much easier to rush the work if you’ve been doing the thinking over the previous weeks or months!
‘If I find that I’ve left something for last minute I will still create a plan using the time frame I have left to make sure I use my time wisely.’- Loujane, BSc Healthcare Science (Audiology)
Challenge 2: Doing too much
Another common challenge people face when trying to manage their time is taking on too many responsibilities and overloading their schedule. This is completely normal and many students do this without even realising. For example, some students join multiple societies, have a part-time job and maybe even volunteer at the same time. While it’s great to enjoy all that your university has to offer, it may end up having a negative impact on your health. This could also lead to you accidentally prioritising the tasks that may not be as important and forgetting to schedule time to complete your assignments. It’s important to have other hobbies alongside your work, but not to the point that it is detrimental to your health!
Management Strategy — Working backwards
This strategy involves planning your assignment out in stages, working backwards from your deadline. Break your assignment down into smaller, more manageable chunks and allocate time to complete each one. For example, you could give yourself a deadline for finishing your research, editing rough drafts, writing, building up references and for proofreading and final editing. Make sure you leave enough time at the end of the process for checking your referencing fully, especially if you are using a reference management tool like EndNote.
Online calendars, planning journals and time management software can help you get organised easily. Apps like Google Calendar include reminders and alarms so you won’t miss out on any of your commitments. You can also colour code commitments relating to university work, personal commitments, and any other category you like. You can also use online calendars to plan and schedule your activities. If you like writing things down, planners can help you look at your schedule for the week at just one glance. You can even get eco-friendly planners made from recycled paper and soy-based ink, it doesn’t get any better than that!
Challenge 3: The need to always feel busy
Sometimes, as students, we find we subconsciously take longer to complete a task so we always have something to do to make ourselves feel busy and needed! As humans, we like to feel like we are needed in our community — whether this is at work, university or any extracurricular activities you take part in. So when we’re asked to do something, we might do more work than we need to, or take longer to finish this task, so that we feel that we’re constantly contributing to our communities. Recognising this subconscious reflex is essential to changing your habits and making your lifestyle more efficient.
Management Strategy — Prioritise your tasks
Prioritising tasks can be difficult so using resources like an urgent-important matrix can help you to plan out and prioritise tasks more clearly. This matrix will help you minimise distractions, delegate tasks, and limit multitasking. It will particularly come in handy when you have loads of work to do, so you can order your tasks and avoid becoming overwhelmed. You’ll learn how to evaluate the relevance of a particular task, and soon you’ll start doing it subconsciously!
‘Evaluating what’s really important to me can help me to have more time to do things that are important to me!’ — Amanda, BA French and Spanish
Consider ‘stacking’ tasks together, if you are particularly pushed for time (for example, when your exams are near and you’ve left revision to the last minute!). For example, listen to a lecture recording on your walk around the block or while you’re in the middle of a really boring chore, like doing the dishes.
Other time-management strategies
Plan ahead
Setting goals in the SMART format (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound) will make motivation easier. For example, a revision goal might be: ‘I’m going to make notes from the key papers from the first 4 lectures in this module (measurable and specific), spending an hour on each paper (time-bound).’ Assuming you’ve left enough time before the exam, this is achievable and relevant to your overarching goal of achieving a 2:1 on this module. When we’re under pressure, it’s easy to set unrealistic goals or underestimate the time it will take to do them, and when this happens, we inevitably end up feeling like we haven’t done enough. Specific goals are easier to achieve and that is what helps sustain motivation.
‘One thing that helps me prepare for the next day is to review what I’ve done at the end of the day and plan what needs to be done the next day. This way I can wake up in the morning with a clear idea of what I have to do.’— Loujane, BSc Healthcare Science (Audiology).
Reward yourself
Rewarding yourself after completing a difficult task can be a helpful way of motivating yourself and increasing your productivity; this is ‘positive reinforcement’. If you have something to look forward to or know that something good awaits you once you’ve completed a task, you’ll be more likely to complete it.
‘I work in a work/reward routine. After I finish some work, I reward myself with Netflix/YouTube time. Reminding myself of the reward motivates me to focus more on the task at hand.’ — Fatimah, PhD Law
Rewards can also be an effective way of motivating yourself to make a start on a task, particularly as getting started is often the hardest part! If you are finding it difficult to integrate rewards into your routine, you could try the Pomodoro Technique. Here are the six steps in the technique:
- Decide on the task that you need to complete.
- Set a timer to 30 minutes.
- Work on the task.
- When the timer rings, put a check on a piece of paper.
- If you have less than four checks you can reward yourself with something small e.g. a 5-minute break or anything small that will motivate you and then repeat the steps.
- When you have four checks you can have a bigger reward e.g. a longer 15–30 min break or a bigger reward.
The reward doesn’t have to be anything lavish (we’re students, after all!) — it can be something very simple like a cup of hot chocolate, watching a short compilation of cute cat videos, or whatever takes your fancy!
Limit distractions
Controlling your environment can help you work better and focus your attention on the task at hand. One way of doing this is by using apps that switch off or manage the time you spend on other apps, such as social media. Flora is one example of an app that helps you concentrate. It also allows you to connect with your friends so you can focus together!
‘Using apps to limit my phone use has helped me get a lot more work done in one sitting and I’ve noticed a huge difference in my concentration.’ — Simone, BSc Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology
Also, make sure you sit in a suitable environment. If your friends distract you, let them know that you are working and need some time to focus. If you work with them in Library study room, other spaces or online study groups, allocate time for socialising and time to make sure you focus and actually get work done! You may usually work in your room, but think about whether it’s the best place to work — you might be tempted by the distractions in your room, or even fall asleep! Even if you feel you can work well in your room, it’s important to have a separation between where you work and where you relax to help your well being, so think about how you can divide up your space as well as your time.
Top Tips
We’re feeling generous today, so here are seven final tips from the Student Team!
- Always keep in mind the bigger picture. Having an important goal that you are working towards (e.g. graduating with a 2:1) can help you feel motivated to manage your time more effectively.
- Know your limits and stick to activities that provide you the most useful outcomes. The urgent/important matrix can help you to eliminate frivolous tasks, or prioritise competing demands on your time.
- Don’t feel like you have to stick to one strategy! Mix and match different approaches and see what works for you.
- Try not to use more than three tools to manage your time, to avoid confusion. If you already keep a diary, calendar and Trello board, maybe don’t introduce anything else, like an extra to-do list — maintaining too many tools is overwhelming and wastes time!
- Focus on one thing at a time! Most of us claim we can multitask, but research shows that multitasking can cost as much as 40% of a person’s productive time — we may think we’re succeeding at multi-tasking, but in reality, we aren’t as productive as we think! To manage your time better, try working on one task at a time and make sure it’s finished before moving on.
- Take breaks and ask for help when you need it! Overcoming your mental barriers to getting things done is not an easy task, but the first step is to remind yourself that you aren’t alone in this. Many of us struggle to challenge our barriers and it’ll take some time to succeed. So, if you ever feel overwhelmed and unable to get everything done, you might need to plan a few rest breaks into your schedule and that’s okay! It might help to find support either with us at the Library, your academic advisor, or the University Counselling Service, who have lots of resources to support study, relaxation and wellbeing.
- And finally, it’s important to remember that things may not go to plan so it’s a good idea to have a backup plan in case something goes wrong, or build some leeway into your schedule. Just knowing that you’ve got this kind of safety net can help you feel calmer and get more done!
Further support
If you’ve found this post helpful, have a look at the support resources below. They’re arranged by theme, so pick the ones that appeal to you!
Maximising your study time:
How to maximise your study time
Overcoming perfectionism:
Mindset: change your approach to learning
Understanding and addressing procrastination:
Now or never? Strategies for dealing with procrastination
Now or never? Understanding the procrastination cycle
Top Ten Tips: time management
Top Ten Tips: Finding your Exam Motivation
Postgraduate Procrastination
By Olivia, Loujane, Fatimah, Simone and Amanda from the Library Student Team
