When you see the list of things to do getting longer and out of control, take action.

Here’s a quick way to get back on track:

Order in importance and focus on just a few tasks each day.  Anything else is a bonus.

I’m sure you don’t have 20 tasks that all need finishing TODAY, even if that’s how it feels sometimes.  Let’s say time truly is tight and you have a week to get 20 important things complete.  That’s less than three things you need to do each day that week.  Even if you relax at weekends, you’d only have four tasks to do each weekday before completing all 20.

I’m sure the jobs will take different lengths of time, but this doesn’t when your list is out of control.  Every job will seem to take up too much of your valuable time.  In the circumstances, you need to claw things back and be the master of it once more.

Do this:

• List all the stuff you need to do.
• Make sure you really NEED to do it.  Anything not important or urgent, take off the list.
• Arrange items in order of importance. But,
• Anything that requires urgent attention over the next day should come first. And,
• Shorter tasks that are inconvenient to complete, but won’t take long, can be dealt with as soon as possible too. That’ll take them off the list and give you a warm, fuzzy feeling.
• Everything else follows on the list, still in order of importance.

If you won’t feel any more warm and fuzzy just by removing the shorter tasks off the list quickly, it may be best to skip that step.  Just order in importance and don’t focus on anything else until you’re out of danger and able to relax once more.

This is a quick and dirty method that still requires a push on your own part, but it helps get the job done.  With a tight focus, you shouldn’t feel so overwhelmed, especially when you get closer to clearing the list of tasks.

I wouldn’t recommend this as a regular way to deal with your time!  The exercise is simply to get you over a panic.

May you never need to use such a method. 😉

Welcome to the final part of the “Make Time For Time” series of posts.

It’s not always possible to get a lot of help from study advice.  There’s no magic answer, because everyone works differently.  Making time for time involves finding your way.  That, in itself, does take some time.  Allow yourself different trials in your quest to find the perfect study setup, otherwise you may never find what works for you.

photo by m00by

Some trials to consider:

• Place of study – Are you better off at your personal desk, at the library, in an outside space?  Location is an important factor in effective work.  Everything else may be right, but if the space doesn’t feel right, it’s hard to work well.
• Belongings – This is an extension of your study space.  If you’re working in a field in the middle of nowhere, you won’t have much to think about.  A desk in your own room, however, is a different matter. You’ll have loads of distractions in front of you and there may be a messy desk cramping your style.  You may work wonderfully in your current location, but the stuff around you can get in the way instead, without you realising.  If you have an ‘off’ day, check the junk and distractions putting you off and get them out of your sight.
• Time of day – Night owl or morning lark?  The time of day you do your work makes a huge difference. What works best for you?
• Your general health – Do you have a 30 minute study session planned just before you eat dinner?  If you’re already hungry, it’s probably a bad time to start working.  Get the food out of the way before you start working the brain.  And what about exercising physically before you exercise mentally?  A quick walk can do wonders for the mind.  Just a 10 minute walk about campus, or around your local area can be enough to give you a jolt in the right direction.  You may even get some ideas on the walk.  Carry a notepad and pen…just in case!
• Headbanger, or silent wonder? – Music helps some of us and hinders others.  Even the type of music can make a difference.  I’ve known some people who don’t like classical music who swear by it when they study.  They don’t even notice the music, but it helps them zone out.  So think about the sounds around you and use music wisely to work effectively.  Try listening to different random white/pink/brown noise if you like, or choose a soundscape with birds and rainfall, or just listen to your favourite song.  There’s bound to be something out there to get you in the mood, even if it’s total silence. Earplugs, here we come!

photo by svenwerk

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From this series of articles, I hope it’s clear that time is something you have a lot of control over.  It may not feel that way much of the time, but there really is a lot we can do to manage time more effectively.

Even the most brilliant planners don’t have a perfect time-management technique.  Lives change, as do priorities.  I called this series ‘Make Time For Time’, because we should never stop thinking about the time available to us.  The moment you drop your guard and think you can’t manage your time any better is the moment you’ll slip up.

In my early teens I was awful at time-management.  It was only after my A-Levels, just before I went to uni, that I realised how much better I could do.

I went from being rubbish at time-management to being okay.  Yes, just okay.  Because it’s hard to be better than okay.  I’m happy to call my time-management a strength, just so long as I’m clear to myself that the real strength is to have a constant awareness that my time can always be managed better and that I will always strive to improve.

If that sounds like your attitude towards time-management, you should be happy to call it a strength too.