The next step in your journey to high distinction assignment results is time management. It’s my firm belief that the core of any success in life is managing our time efficiently and effectively. There’s a popular motto around time management; it makes you work smarter, not harder.
There are three elements of time management that I’d like to focus on in this article:
- Prioritising
- Multi-tasking
- Goal setting
Prioritising
This is a fundamental element of time management. Each day you have to make sure you know exactly what you’re prioritising, which assignment or subject or what project you will focus on. Then throughout the day you can’t lose sight of the order of things. You do not make a list, but rather have the one thing that has to get done and the rest is secondary. This means that your main focus for the day is what you intend to get done and there are no excuses. Of course if you focus on one thing all day it might get tedious, so you break it up with other things on your to-do list. Which brings us to the second element.
Multi-Tasking
Sometimes you’ll need a break from your top priority task. The important thing is to not lose out on time: everything you do must still be productive. If you need a break, simply set a timer for twenty minutes and do something else that’s on your list. Get back onto that prioritised task however, before the day runs out.
Goal Setting
This element ties in with the last two. In order to prioritise tasks you must set goals. Specifically, realistic goals.
A bad goal might be: “do an hour on PKM360 assignment 1” or “study for an exam”. These goals are vague.
A good goal however would be: “do pages 2-6 of reading” or “work through notes from week 8 for exam”. These goals are specific, allowing you to actually achieve something at the end of the day. Be sure to make your goals reasonable. Do not set yourself an impossible task to get done in a day.
A final element of time management is ‘Organisation’ but we’ll cover that more in the next article in the series!
If you haven’t already, check out Part 1 of this series where we look at how to build your perfect workspace.
