TIME MANAGEMENT SUCCESS

TIME MANAGEMENT SUCCESS

1. CLARIFY YOUR VALUES Be clear about your priorities - Knowing what is important to you helps give you direction in life. These values help remind you why you are doing what you are doing. They are also helpful when you having doubts or feel torn. Order your values from most important to least important Prioritising your values will clarify where your focus needs to be. Activity: a. Imagine yourself in your favourite place. Visualise 10 years from now. Reflect on your life. What did you most enjoy experiencing? What did you most appreciate accomplishing or having? b. Imagine yourself again in your favourite place. You are back to your current age. You have just learned that you have six months to live. What do you want to experience, accomplish and have? Page 2 of 9

2. SET GOALS USING S M A R T S - Sacrifice Is this goal simply a dream of what you would like to have happen? What are you willing to sacrifice to make it happen? M - Meaningful Does the goal match your values? e.g. if family and socialising are your highest priority right now, you may want to take longer to do your degree to accommodate your needs. Attach meaning to your tasks and assignments e.g. finishing this essay will contribute significantly to the marks I need to pass. A Achievable Is the goal specific enough that you will know when you have achieved it? Do you have access to all necessary resources to achieve it? Be flexible. Always have a Plan B! R Rewarding Is your goal going to give you a sense of achievement? Set rewards for yourself for each step taken towards the goal e.g. a night out with friends when the assignment is complete. T Timely Have you realistically allowed the time you need to complete your goals? E.g. Week 1 seven weeks to complete four assignments. Week 6 only one week to complete four assignments. Activity Write down one short-term goal (e.g. write essay) and one long-term goal (e.g. Complete Bachelor of Music degree). Apply S M A R T to these goals. Page 3 of 9

3. SELF-EVALUATION Does a real-time log of how you spend your time currently - Do this over 3-5 days to get a realistic picture of how you use your time. Identify your most productive time of the day - Are you a morning, afternoon or evening person? Where are your energy slumps? Try to use the times when you feel most productive to schedule study time. Identify what bogs you down and how you respond to this - Write down situations, thoughts and outside influences that undermine your motivation and self-belief. How does this impact on you? Identify what motivates you - Are you motivated by the big picture, the small rewards along the way or both? Use these to reignite your commitment to your studies. Page 4 of 9

4. ACTION VS PROCRASTINATION Break down your assignments and study blocks into small, realistic and achievable steps. Review your schedule regularly and always have a plan B. When feeling stuck- do something, no matter how small, to contribute to your goals. Be aware of the distractions in your day - Make alternative arrangements that minimise or eliminate these distractions and interruptions. Make sure family and friends are clear about your non-interruption times - Be firm and make an alternative time with them. BEWARE!! Avoidance behavior e.g. focusing only on what you like and avoiding what you don t. It can be easy to spend time on the units you enjoy and find easy. This is often done at the expense of units you don t enjoy but that still need your time and attention to achieve your goals. Another trap is to delay starting an assignment by choosing the reward before the task is completed such as spending time on Facebook instead. Being clear about what you want to achieve in the time scheduled will help you stay on track. Dramatising talking yourself into an overwhelmed state that immobilises you. It is important to seek help as soon as you begin to feel anxiety about your ability to manage. Some simple strategies put in place early can help keep anxiety at a manageable level. Page 5 of 9

Contributing factors to procrastination include: Fear For some students, there is a real fear of not knowing what they are doing or where to start. Just writing down random ideas to begin with can get the ball rolling. Learn to allow the ideas to flow in spite of any negative self-judgments that may be coming up. Remind yourself that this is not a finished product but merely a way of beginning the process. Taking on too much If you find yourself over-burdened with other people s demands at the expense of what you need to get done, learn to say NO respectfully but firmly. Alternatively, this may be an ideal time to negotiate some trading of help with your fellow students. Emotional Issues It is important to address these issues and possibly reassess your schedule until the issues have been resolved. Perfectionism Fear of Failure All or Nothing Attitude. Some students place unrealistic expectations on themselves and set themselves up for failure. Passive Aggressive Attitudes Expressing frustration, resentment or anger by holding out on doing the work ask yourself who wins? Who loses? Activity Think of a time when you felt stuck. What did you do? Was it helpful? If not, what could you do differently next time that would help you achieve your goal? Quote - It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult - Seneca Page 6 of 9

5. CREATE YOUR TIMETABLE SAMPLE WEEKLY PLAN HOURS MON TUES WED THURS FRID SAT SUN 7-8AM SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP 8-9AM BREAKFAST 9-10AM BREAKFAST BREAKFAST BREAKFAST BREAKFAST CRITICAL STUDIES 10-11AM 11am- 12pm 12-1PM LIBRARY AURAL CONCERT PRAC SONGWRITIT NG 1 CONT 2 THEORY CRITICAL STUDIES CONT 2 THEORY 1-2PM LUNCH LUNCH LUNCH LUNCH LUNCH SLEEP WORK SLEEP MY TIME 2-3PM 3-4PM IM LESSON LIBRARY ENSEMBLE PERFORMAN CE STUDIES LECTURE 4-5PM 5-6PM MASTERCLA SS DINNER 6-7PM DINNER DINNER DINNER DINNER WORK 7-8PM 8-9PM 9-10PM MY TIME 10-11PM SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP CLASSES REHEARSALS MY TIME EXAMS WORK SLEEP Page 7 of 9

The timetable was created in Microsoft Excel. You can create your own from scratch or download a template from the website and write your information in by hand. Some students enjoy using colour coding while others prefer a more basic appearance. Creating a daily list is another way of creating a schedule. Non-negotiable tasks such as: Academic timetable Work Meal times Sleep YES SLEEP! Negotiable tasks such as: Rehearsals, Practice, Study. Personal Family, friends, spiritual. Down Time Your time for YOU ONLY! N.B. All of these tasks are important components of a successful schedule. You re non-negotiable and negotiable tasks list may be different to those above. The initial set-up of your timetable may take a couple of hours but it will only take a few minutes at the end of each week to make any adjustments necessary for the following week. Be flexible, reassess regularly and always have a plan B. Page 8 of 9

6. SELF-CARE PLAN FOR SUCCESS If you have allocated a 2-hour study block make sure you have regular small breaks for maximum benefit. Have a spare study time each week that is not for specific tasks. You can use this time to make up for unexpected changes to your week. E.g. Tuesday afternoon was scheduled for finishing an essay but you had to use that time to rehearse for concert practice. You can use your spare study block to still get the essay done. While you may use your study blocks differently from week to week, try to schedule those study blocks at the same time each week. This way you create a solid pattern of behavior that you can rely on. Regular time for organising study is helpful but be careful NOT to over-organise. It will become overwhelming and you will give up. Attempt to review notes as close to the class time as possible to capitalise on a fresh memory. Page 9 of 9