One of the most difficult aspects of being a student is fitting in your studying with everything else in your life. This is why this unit focuses on organisational skills including time management. It is important both to find enough time to study and then to try to make the most effective use of your time. Finding enough time can be quite a challenge! It often means giving up some activities you currently enjoy or perhaps negotiating with your family and friends to pass on some of the daily chores, or to allow you some time to yourself. Nonetheless, it is surprising how much can be achieved in short five- or ten-minute slots, such as recapping on previous work, sorting out paperwork or planning future work. Having found some time, it is also worth thinking about whether this is the best time for you to study and, if it is not, changing it.
Now quickly read through the main headings in section 2. Using your experience of studying section 1, write a rough plan of the times for your study sessions for section 2. Remember to include some emergency time in case your timetable does not work out as planned, or you want to include further work on section 1.
A student made the following comment:
I looked through Section 2 ? there are lots of activities. That might slow down my reading. A lot of the activities seem to be about Karen, Levene and Shehnaz ? then there are others which seem to be about me. I think I?ll study this in several chunks. I?ll have time on Wednesday afternoon to do a couple of hours ? might get as far as the part about communication skills.
It is worth considering the times of day and the lengths of sessions in which you work most productively. For example, if you know you are going to lose concentration after half an hour or so and also that you are just too tired to study in the evenings, it is probably better to schedule your study time for new topics in half-hour slots in the morning and use the evenings for something else.
If you tick off the activities you can do, you will be able to see clearly which areas to ask for extra help on or practise further. This will help you make the best possible use of both your tutorials and your own study sessions.
Copyright © 2008 The Open University
