Time Management

The Mental Necessities of Timetabling

The effectiveness of your timetable depends entirely on how you see the world and what you want to achieve.

It may not seem important, but the way you plan your future can impact just as heavily on your success as the planned actions themselves.

For instance, if you’re the kind of person who enjoys seeing an empty timetable, it’s no good filling it up with small tasks throughout the day.

photo by nosheep

Before you start making plans for anything, ask yourself how you will best make use of those plans.  Not all to-do lists are the same!

Even with summer approaching, your time is best used with some form of timetable, so you are best prepared for the time to come.  You may have a summer job, a reading list for next academic year, holidays planned, thoughts on going out with mates, personal goals, fitness regimes, and a lot more in sight.  A good timetable will bring all your thoughts together and let them take shape without overwhelming you.  A bad timetable just makes you feel like there isn’t enough time for everything.

So what are the possibilities?  Here are some ideas:

1. Every last action written down and dealt with – If you need to take stock of everything, no matter how big or small, you should first outline your longer-term goals and intentions.  Then all you need is persistence, a good diary and a solid technique for getting your extensive daily to-do list sorted quickly at the start of each day.  Don’t try to plan much further ahead than this, as it will become too difficult to comprehend each and every issue you want to handle each day.

2. Bare timetable, only listing lectures, seminars, meetings, job hours, and any unavoidable deadlines – This method is suitable for those who have the focus and  determination to work without procrastinating, but who do so by seeing large sections of free time available.  Clearly, this doesn’t work if you treat it as free time.  Neither does it work if you don’t give yourself a break…  If you’re serious about your work but don’t like to restrict yourself with plans, a bare timetable can pay off.

3. A timetable, plus a to-do list – You might not want to schedule your to-do actions for the day.  Perhaps you sort those tasks much better when you find small pockets of time.  For a bit of flexibility throughout a generally ordered day, it does no harm to consult two forms of forward planning.  Just make sure the to-do list doesn’t involve items that must be timetabled, otherwise you’ll duplicate yourself unnecessarily.

4. Simple to-do list only – While we all need some sort of timekeeping, if you’re happy to remember the one or two appointments you need to keep in the day, you may prefer to keep the times in your head.  Instead, all you may want to write down is a basic list of jobs you need to do.  Although basic, you should still be more specific than to list “Write essay” and “Visit library to research topic X”.  You could list “Write 200 words for Introduction” or “Use reading list to find relevant books and scour for quotes based on this week’s essay”.

5. Boxed 24-hour timetable, like David Seah has designed – Even if it doesn’t work for you, you’ve got to admit it’s kind of awesome.

There are many ways of scheduling your day/week/month/year/life, but only you can find what works for you.  It’s important you do find a working method though, because it makes a big difference to who you are.

Please feel free to suggest any other timetabling and scheduling methods that work for you in the comments.

photo by spekulator

What’s getting in the way of your plan?

How much planning is too much planning?

If you like to plan ahead, but still don’t feel organised, there’s a danger in spending even longer getting your act into gear.  You can obsess over stuff for a week, or even a month, with the intention to plan ahead for every last second of time.

Then, to your annoyance, something comes between you and your plan.  Then another thing gets in the way.  It could be something small, like an important phone call when you mean to be writing.  Or it could be a big deal, like you get flu and can hardly move for a few days.

They aren’t your fault (unless you meant to turn your phone off, perhaps…).  But less important matters also tend to get in the way.  Sometimes we don’t even notice.  Without warning, a whole day has whizzed past and nothing’s been done.  Fast forward a week and you wonder just how the time has flown by.

photo by woodsy

photo by woodsy

Even the most organised person doesn’t have to stick rigidly to their schuedle.  They probably can’t. After all, life happens.

The idea is to work out what activities get in the way, so you’re more aware for preparing future plans.

Each time something unexpected or unplanned gets in the way, write it down and note how long it took before you were back on track with the planned list.  Whether it was self-induced or totally unavoidable, mention it.  Don’t be shy.

This will help you discover:

  • Tasks you hadn’t considered that are part of your regular routine;
  • Necessary time-wasters, such as using the toilet, getting dressed, standing in a queue, waiting for a computer to log you in to a network, and so on (be as brutal as you like…it’s your time that’s being managed!);
  • How disciplined you are in your approach;
  • Stumbling blocks.  Things you thought you could do without, but that you would rather keep as part of your life;
  • The amount of time you want to dedicate simply to relaxation;
  • A more realistic outlook of time and an idea of where you need to start managing time better.

The exercise helps on a number of levels.  You may even realise that the enthusiasm you thought you had could be cranked up a notch. Or you may find a passion you didn’t even know you had.

Time is a strange thing.  There’s never enough, yet we seem to have more time than ever for leisure.  That’s why an exercise like this is vital in understanding just where your time goes.

When you’re done, was it a satisfactory result?  Or is it time to change?

I do this every now and then.  I don’t remember a time when it didn’t make a change for the better.

Freshers – Work seriously to find more fun

This is one of the most common things I hear from Freshers:

“The first year doesn’t go toward your final degree award, so you might as well just pass the modules and leave the proper work for later…”

Not true.  That attitude creates more work, not less.  Desperately cramming more fun in the short term causes less fun in the long term.  What’s the point in that?

Now we’re into 2009 and Freshers are pretty cosy in their ways now, I’ve been hearing a lot of these comments.  One person recently said to me, “I didn’t know the marks didn’t matter until the other day.  Someone could’ve told me I didn’t have to work so hard on everything!”  This coming from someone with straight-As at A-Level.  Perhaps it’s an image thing, but that leaves a lot of people trying to give the same image.

The first year of university is definitely meant to be a time for fun and enjoying the social whirl.  It’s also about finding your feet, settling in, and getting to grips with what’s expected of you.  Your study is important in all these things.  That’s the very reason why the essays and exams don’t usually go toward the final degree marking.  You’re being allowed the opportunity to find a voice, to make mistakes, to understand how to craft a winning essay.

That first year is the ultimate time to further your ability and push things up at least one grade the following year, if not more.  It might not seem that way, but early on in your degree could be the best moment to strike.

What do you think?

gear-man (photo by dlnny)

A Journal Journey – 10 Benefits of an Academic Journal

Keeping some sort of diary or journal isn’t restricted to your personal thoughts on how a hot date was, what you think of the stupid trick played on you by your so-called mates, and how amazing that low-key gig was last night.  Just look at the range of output you get from all the blogs out there.

One powerful way to whip yourself into great study shape is to start writing an academic journal.  The process can be as quick as you like and the benefits far outweigh the time you need to spend on it.

photo by lusi

photo by lusi

An academic journal doesn’t need to follow any particular structure, but you should take it seriously.  It only requires a few bullet points each day to show how you’re solving a problem, how you intend to find your voice, or what you’re doing to shape your future.  Feel free to write in whatever way you feel comfortable with.  It may take a few days to find a style or setup you’re happy with, but once you work through that, you’ll gain access to the bigger picture and take hold of a new perspective on your working:

  1. You can learn about yourself on a more engaging level;
  2. You can learn from your mistakes;
  3. You’re more likely to pick up on the ideas that work best for you;
  4. Your focus will remain pin-sharp;
  5. What was just a nugget of an idea, merely throwaway at the time, can expand into an elaborate vision when you revisit that thought;
  6. You can plan ahead with greater ease and pick up on flaws and overlaps;
  7. It helps you with the creative and written process;
  8. It helps you analyse at a deeper level;
  9. Your journal is a document of past moments that may be valuable to a great future;
  10. You should gain greater confidence through a journal, compared with just your thoughts.

I didn’t keep a journal while at university.  But I now see the value in making the effort.  I still don’t write a regular daily journal, but who needs to sit down with a ‘Dear Diary’ nowadays anyway?  All I do is fire open a journal on the computer and get down ideas for the day, respond to what’s on my mind and allow the creative juices to flow.  Often, it helps me ignore any Internal Editor sneaking around my head too.  It means my ‘journal’ is often subject to change.  But as it’s a personal document, it makes absolutely no difference.

In time, you’ll end up enjoying the process and realise how beneficial it’s become.  And it shouldn’t take up much of your time at all.  Bonus!

photo by dinny

photo by dinny