By Thalita Bianda Siregar Â
As a university student, there must be things to handle besides loads of assignments and tests. A structured allocation of time is needed to help in managing things you have and you are about to do.
Many of us believe in the existence of œsecond chance. It surely will come but it will never tell you when it arrives. We often disparage how precious the time we have to do something worthless instead of the important ones. Time cannot be repeated. Hence, effective time management is one thing you must have.
A good time management is where you can differentiate your personal and professional lives. Your mediocrity and priority level of your concern. We must control our time to achieve good time management. When you do not consciously control time, your old habits will control your time and set limits on your achievements.
Establishing goals and following a schedule are two fundamental steps in taking control of time. Assignment deadlines and examination dates can be used to predetermine your target as semester goals. But it will not materialise if you do not have a schedule to follow.
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Calendar notes / alert
Straight away make notes or alert in your gadget calendar when assignments, themes, reports, and research papers are due given by lecturers. Quizzes, tests, mid-terms, final examinations, and presentations dates are included. Your notes can be in another form besides of your gadget calendar. But you have to make sure you put all your notes in one place so you can manage things altogether. Putting your notes in gadget calendar is preferable because nowadays you cannot live without your gadget and you can set an alarm to remind you.
Set time to prepare all those deadline days before it is submitted in order to arrange when you want to do the other assignments. These dates are your goals and by referring often to your calendar it will help you keep focused on your goals.
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Weekly plan
When productive times of lectures are to start, prepare a weekly priority list which classify into both middling and crucial ones. List down the things you need and want to accomplish during the week. Identify which course that needs to be re-read or reviewed. The part you do not really understand and want to ask your friend or lecturer.
Arranging schedules week by week really ease you. Because it is organised from the very first place and you will not end up in messy and chaotic situation when the unplanned ones come in suddenly. You can always refer back to your middling and crucial lists when you want to do something that needs consideration. You can consider which one is the most important to do first. This manageable strategy can monitor you in your way to achieve your goals.
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Semester plan
Week by week goes as in your weekly plan is building up your semester plan. As your habits adjust to your schedule, it is important to allocate times to your me time. If this tends to happen constantly, your goal at the end of semester can be established.
Try to habituate meeting your deadline straight away when it is given by the lecturer. By doing so, you will not rush to finish up everything in the last minute. Allocate your time also to review courses at the end of weekdays so not to bother your weekend. Reviewing courses outside the class hours is the key to help you to better understand and prepare you if some courses have pop-quiz to face.
Some may enjoy reviewing the courses at the end of weekdays but some may not have time to do it by the end of weekdays so they sacrifice their weekend. No matter how busy you are, you have to spend your personal time to have enough sleep, refreshing, and be in contact with your family. Do not let your mind and health be affected by all things that lead your body to be unhealthy.
Strategise a study plan by dividing which subject you need attention more. By studying the difficult subject first, the others can follow afterwards. You can manage how long you will study the difficult subject and the easy subject by knowing the time allocation you have. You know yourself best when it is time to study. Some can study in daylight but some can concentrate more at night. Both times are fine but again, but keeping your good health is a must.
This plan may be not suit you at the first time you try. The suitable plan will be discovered as you live with your plan and keep revising. All in all, do not waste your time as mentioned earlier. Remember time cannot be repeated.***
Photo courtesy of Mtkang