Time management and organisation basically boils down to the following: know what you need to manage!
Break down what you have to do into manageable chunks and think about how long it will take YOU to do that chunk of work. Everyone works differently so don't worry if it takes you a little more time to do some things.
Give each chunk of work its own deadline
Put each deadline into a calendar or planner
Plan when you will get each 'chunk' of work done.
Build into you planner study sessions where you aim to work on these tasks.
Here are some templates to help:
Find the right space to work in. Set up your workspace to minimise distractions and have everything you need to hand before you start studying.
If you have a time of day when you work more effectively, use it whenever you can.
It's important to have a logical system for storing your notes. If you don't already have a note taking method that works for you, now is a good time to start thinking about this. Have a look at our Lib Guide on reading and note taking.
If you take notes on a piece of paper, give them a date and a title and transfer them to a folder at the end of the day or week. Perhaps colour code your modules?
If you take electronic notes, set up a system of folders and sub-folders that makes sense to you. Some students use OneNote (free for users of Office 365), Notion or Evernote (free for the basic version) to take notes and organise them into notebooks. If you install the Notion web clipper or Evernote Chrome extension, you can save bookmarks and screenshots directly to your notebooks. Another useful tool for saving bookmarks is the open-source reference management software Zotero, or MyBib, which can both help keep your research sources organised and create a list of references.
Setting clear and attainable goals can help you be clear about what you want to achieve and when you want to get the task done by. Setting realistic goals can also help with motivation, focus and making a decision about what tasks need to take priority. Prioritisation then involves deciding which tasks are either the most urgent, or the most important, and doing those first.
This involves setting yourself a goal for each study session and then working in blocks of time (perhaps one or two hours) divided into short sprints (typically 25 minutes each). This is then followed by a short break. After two hours take a longer break. There are many Pomodoro apps to help keep you on track.
You could also try using our Study Session Tracker See link below
It can also help to create a Priority Matrix to organise tasks by importance and urgency.
'Eat the Frog' productivity method
"If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first" - M Twain
Have a look at this short video which will explain the technique and how it might help you.
Hello and welcome back to the todoist channel my name is Naomi and today's video we are going to discuss a very strangely named productivity method called eat the frog. It sounds gross but stick around because it is actually wonderfully helpful and no frogs were harmed in the making of this video and I did not come up with the name so please don't come at me. The eat the Frog productivity method is perfect for anyone who struggles with procrastination and gets a lot done but isn't making progress on the important stuff and has a hard time sticking to a productivity system or has trouble deciding what to work on at any given time or feels overwhelmed by their to-do list. So, what on earth is eat the frog anyway? The phrase eat the Frog comes from Mark Twain who famously said if it's your job to eat a frog it's best to do it first thing in the morning and if it's your job to eat two frogs it's best to eat the biggest one first yep really weird thing to say but productivity consultant Brian Tracy used this quote to formulate a productivity method eat the Frog which helps you tackle the most important and challenging task first thing in your day identifying one important task for your day and doing it first. Now you might be thinking one task? What is wrong with you I have a million things that I need to do on any given day but if you actually have lots of tasks that you need to do on any given day then this might be the most powerful productivity method for you . Let's get clear this does not mean that you do one thing per day that would be ridiculous this means that you find the most important biggest scariest hairiest challenging task that you know you need to get done and you just do that first before anything else then when that's done you can start all of the other tasks that you have to do. Why use Eat the Frog? We believe that Eat the Frog should be in everybody's productivity toolkit even if you're already practicing things like time blocking or the Pomodoro Technique by the way we have videos on both of those methods which I'll link in the description box below. Valuable work often requires intense focus and today's modern workplace is not really set up for that with distractions Galore. The eat the Frog method requires us to push back on those distractions and that's external distractions other people interrupting you or internal distractions you interrupting yourself it forces you to prioritize what's important and make sure that that gets done before anything else steals your focus. It ensures you're setting your own agenda. All too often the first thing we do when we start work is we open up our emails open up our messages start getting input from other people and that can be very distracting for your own priorities and makes you reactive effectively so using the eat the Frog method means that you're honing your focus on what's most important to you first and then other people's agendas can come afterwards. It sets you up to win. Eat the Frog forces you to make progress on your most important goals on a daily basis. Studies have shown that this kind of progress is a key motivator for people to continue in a virtuous cycle of getting the right things done. When you experience a win first thing in the morning it can really help you build momentum and carry those Good Vibes through the rest of your day. This is a productivity method you can fall back on anytime if everything else feels overwhelming and complex choosing the one most important thing in your day and doing that first is about as simple as it gets and now for some tips on eating Tips for Eating Your Frogs Your frogs decide on your frog also known as your most important task or your MIT. This task is often something that is important but not urgent this is a type of task that can have quite a lot of mental resistance behind it it can often lead to procrastination if you don't make time for it. You probably already know the task I'm talking about. Pick something that you can complete in 1 to 4 hours your frog should take no more than half a work day a clearly defined and realistic task will make it easier for you to actually accomplish it first thing in the morning and then get on with the rest of your day break it down into smaller steps if needed if your frog is going to take more than half a day you're going to need to break that down you need something that's going to be small and manageable and can be achieved in under 4 hours resist the temptation to plan too far ahead once you get started with this method it can be quite tempting to schedule your tasks out for a week or weeks to come but actually accurately forecasting how long a task will take in that length of time is almost impossible the night before is perfect timing you know what what's most important for you to be doing that next day it's fresh enough for you to understand all of the component parts of completing that task and you're close enough to actually predict how long it's going to take eat your frog first thing whatever time you start work if at all possible tackle this task first don't read messages open emails have a look at all of your tasks for the rest of the day just focus laser focus on that frog.
Again, everyone is different. You might prefer to carry around something physical like a diary, notebook or Post It Notes. Or, you might use the calendar, alarms, reminders and notes on your phone or tablet.
You know yourself well and know what it is that distracts you the most!
