Conquer the clock

Lejla Vrazalic and Lois Smith give a quick guide to effective time management.

Now that you are well into the new term, assignments are looming and it is time to think how you are going to cope with all the work you have to do. Here are some tips to help you manage your time effectively and get the most out of your university life.

Know yourself

To be able to manage your time well you need to know your preferred study habits. Think about the best time for you to study. Are you a ‘morning person', or do you like to sleep late? Are you wide awake and full of life at 2am, but slow and sleepy in the afternoon? You need to find the time when you are most alert and try to make that your study time.

You will be surprised how much more work you get done when you are feeling fresh and awake. You also need to have a good idea of your strengths and weaknesses as a student.

- If you know you tend to leave things to the last minute, making yourself a plan is very important.
- If you know you find it hard to cope with pressure, give yourself plenty of time to prepare your assignments.
- It would also be a good idea to find out your learning style so that you make the best use of your study time.

There are many online self-assessment quizzes to help you do this, for example visit www.vark-learn.com/english/index.asp.

Manage your study time

Before you start to study, plan your time. Make a timetable of your assignments and exams so that you can see at a glance when the ‘pressure' times are going to come. Then you can plan your study timetable around those times. So, some weeks will be fairly light, while other weeks will need intensive study time.

Planning is also important during your study time. Decide which subjects you find most difficult and start with them. This way you will face the most challenging things when you are fresh, and leave the easier subjects for later.

When you are studying, don't forget to look after yourself. You need to make sure you have enough sleep, and enough to eat and drink. Your brain needs all the help it can get, so don't be tempted to skimp on these things.

It is a good idea to keep some snacks handy when you are studying, or, even better, take regular short ‘comfort breaks' for eating, drinking and a bit of relaxation. If you have your own room or study, try to make it as comfortable as possible, but make sure there are not too many distractions, like television. Here's a radical idea — leave your phone in another room when you are studying. That way you will avoid about 90 per cent of your disturbances.

Balance study and leisure time

You may be surprised that we are telling you to go out and have fun, but that is just what we want you to do. Being a student is about more than studying, and you should take advantage of all that student life offers you.

Spend time with your friends, relax, play football or tennis, go to the cinema, but above all enjoy yourself. If you do that you will find you approach your study in a better frame of mind and get more out of it than if you shut yourself away and hardly ever see your friends. However, a note of caution — you need to have a balance between leisure and study time. Too much partying is not a good thing, and will only lead to disaster.

If you plan your time carefully, you should be able to do well in your studies and have a good time. This makes your timetable even more important.

Make the best of your time — use the ‘twofer' principle

Do you find that you have a lot of ‘wasted' time in your week when you are travelling to and from university, or waiting for friends, etc?

Instead of seeing this as wasted time, try to think of it as extra study time. Use your bus journeys to read through your lecture notes. You can even prepare some little note cards to keep in your pocket so that if you are waiting at the mall for your friends, you have something to read.

The whole idea is to make the best use of your time. This is the ‘twofer' principle: ‘two for one' (doing two things at the same time).

Even if you have nothing to read, you can use time you spend waiting around going over your notes or lecture in your head. Another important thing you can do to save time is using some of your ‘free' time at university to study instead of doing it all at home.

By all means go off to the cafeteria and spend some time with your friends, but try to spend some of your free time in the library or study room, too. You never know, your friends may even join you.

Hopefully, now you have some ideas on how to manage your time to get the best out of your studies. Good luck.

- Dr Lejla Vrazalic and Lois Smith are award-winning educators and teaching/learning researchers at the University of Wollongong in Dubai