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Time Management for Studies

Time management is one of the qualities of brilliant students. Time management refers to scheduling tasks and assigning them the proper amount of time. It is the planning about studies to utilize the available time productively. It involves thinking about how to take out time from other activities to be used of study or how to avoid those activities which may waste your precious time. The life of students encompasses academic as well as non-activities. The academic activities include attending class lectures, studying books, making study-notes, making preparation for exams and attempting exams. The non-academic activities include playing games, watching movies, listening to music, using social media sites, and hanging out with friends.

The academic and non-academic activities are equally important, and students should normally have a balanced approach to all activities of life. However, the major concern of a student is and should be his academics. This is the real job of a student. This is what a student is meant for – to study his books and prepare for their exams. With this in mind, a student must manage time for his studies to achieve their academic goals. The most important aspect of time management for study is to get more time from other routine activities for studies. However, some students may find it difficult to manage their time adequately and to maximize their academic outcomes. Therefore, this article teaches the techniques for good time management for students, as follows:

  Plan about your studies

A very known saying is ‘when you fail to plan, you plan to fail’. This saying reflects the importance of planning for success in an activity. A student should always plan about his studies. He should think that which books to study, how much to study, when to study, and how to make preparation for the exam. He should make a clear plan for himself which serves as a roadmap for him. For instance, student may think about how many subjects or topics he has to study in the academic session and how much time he has to study them before the exam. He calculates the total number of topics (within all subjects) and available times in terms of days. Then, he divides the total number of topics on total number of days, it gives him an idea that how many topics should be studied daily to complete the subjects before the exam. This is a simple example. Your plan can be slightly different depending upon the nature of your studies. However, you should make a clear plan. It will keep you on the right track towards the achievement of your academic goals. When you know how much work you have to do each day, you feel concerned about completing your work each day. On the other hand, working haphazardly without a plan, a student may end up having a huge burden of study at the end of their academic session.  

  Fix your priorities in the order of their importance

Make a list of your routine activities including academic as well as non-academic activities. Prioritize them in order of their importance. First, this will let you know what to do first and what to do next. Second, it will help you in allocating the right amount of time to each activity according to its importance. This is the general approach to time management. However, being a student, you should have a slightly different approach to scheduling your activities.

As you are a student and want to manage time for studies because it is the first and foremost activity for you. It means you to take out some time from other activities to be used for your studies. Therefore, look at the list of activities you have prioritized in order. See, which activities can be reduced, and which activities can be skipped altogether. For instance, taking physical exercise (such as going for walk or any other physical activity) is essential for physical as well as mental health, therefore, it should be given some time to in your schedule. However, you can fairly reduce the time for activities such as watching movies, listening to music and using social media websites. These are the common culprits which waste a lot of time of students. Therefore, you may take a bit aggressive approach to minimize them, such as by not wasting time watching movies and using social media sites all day. This would involve some habit changes, but if you think about it seriously, you will save a lot of time for your studies.

  Know the real worth of time – change thinking style

Time is the most valuable resource but unfortunately, many of us do not realize its real worth and spend it in many useless activities. However, for effective time management, the realization of the real value of time is important. Being a student, you should understand that your time very precious. You cannot afford to waste it. You have to utilize every second of time productively in your studies to achieve your academic goals. When you realize the value of time and accept it, you will naturally be able to refrain from wasting it. This realization is the first step towards good time management.  

  Learn to study more in little time – speed up your study

Some students may spend hours studying a single topic because they may also engage in other activities while they are studying such as using a mobile phone to text friends or opening another website page in the browser while they are studying on their computer. A student must have the habit of speedy study. They should be able to study more in little time. They have to prepare a lot of courses and the slow speed of study will help them. Therefore, you should develop the habit of speedy study and you can do this by practising it. If certain factors like the aforementioned things are affecting the speed of your study, it is better to switch off your phone or not to open any other website while you are studying on your computer.   

  Make your study place conducive for your study

The place where you study also counts for proper time management. Your study place should let you continue your study for a longer time. Your study place should well-lit, well ventilated and neither too cold nor too hot, so you can utilize your available time productively. Using a chair and table is the best way to do study. Do not use your bed or an overly comfortable sofa for study that may make you somewhat lazy and sleepy. Your study place should have a clock there on a wall so you can easily know how much time you have spend on a specific subject.

It is better to study at one common place daily which you accepted psychological as your study place. When you study at one common place, it helps you easily enter into a frame of mind to take a start quickly and keep studying for a fairly good time. Do not change your study place too often.

  Have good sleeping habit

Sleeping habit has a lot to do with time management. Some students have a habit of keep waking till late at night and getting up in the morning and sometimes late in the noon. This changing sleeping habit affects your all routine activities including your studies. You should have fixed timings for your sleep so you can follow your routine in a scheduled manner. This is an important aspect of the manageability of time.

Moreover, have a good amount of sleep because it is essential for your physical as well as mental health. Take about seven or eight hours of sleep every night. It will help your body relax as well as help your brain restore its full working capacity for the next day.

  Allocate some time to other activities too

Some non-academic activities are an important part of life. For instance, taking physical exercise and playing physical games are good for your health as well as they refresh you and thus, help you sustain your study for a longer time. Similarly, some recreational activities such as listening to music may also be assigned a little time in your schedule, so you may not miss them and keep thinking about them while you are studying.