Learning and Teaching Unit
A key to being a successful student is to have clear goals and a well-balanced lifestyle that provides the opportunity for you to achieve your goals. You can do this by taking the time to clarify your goals, decide what activities are important, plan the use of your time, prioritise conflicting demands, monitor the continued relevance of your goals and the balance of activities in your life, maintain your motivation and manage your stress. This guide provides you with the information and strategies you need to put these ideas into practice.
It is important to take some time to assess what is important to you and to make lifestyle choices that enable you to do those things that are central to your success. While you are studying it may be necessary to put on hold some of your other goals and/or activities so that you can achieve your study goals. The following steps may help you to begin this decision-making process:
You have your list of activities. Now you need to plan your time carefully so that you can do everything you want to and achieve your goals. This planning could include:
Once you have tried to fit all your activities into your week, it may be apparent that it is not possible. You may not be able to spend as much time on each of them as you would like nor live the lifestyle you have created while staying healthy in body, heart and mind. When you have competing demands and not enough time, you need to prioritise activities.
When you prioritise you will need to take into account both the relative importance and the relative urgency of each activity. Look at the examples in Table 1 and decide where your activities fit.
Table 1: Relative importance and urgency of activities
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Level of Urgency – how short the deadline is and how insistent the demand for it to be done |
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High |
Low |
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Level of Importance |
High |
|
|
Low |
|
|
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Direct your energy towards achieving the goals you have set. Avoid getting caught up in reacting to the urgency alone. Sometimes unimportant things can seem urgent and if we give those a high priority we can prevent ourselves from achieving important goals. Then there are times when the important things may seem unpleasant or difficult and it can be tempting to do less important but more enjoyable things first. To achieve your goals it is best to make your first priority the tasks that are both high importance and high urgency.
Prioritising is about making choices and that can be difficult. Sometimes it means spending less time on certain activities and having to accept a less than ideal outcome. At these times it is important to remind yourself that you are doing the best you can in the circumstances and feel positive about the choices you make.
Once you have made your choices you can modify your weekly planner. It is useful to display your planner in an obvious place (above your desk or on the fridge door).
Finally, you may find it helpful to return to your trusted friend to get a second opinion on whether the lifestyle you have created will work. When you are satisfied that it seems manageable you can trial it.
Once you have a lifestyle that works for you, there is more to do! Ongoing attention is required if an appropriate balance is to be maintained. The demands in life are not constant. Your study workload has peaks and troughs and you need to be aware of these changing requirements so that you can adjust your time plan to meet the actual demands of each week. You can use a study planner to help you to plan ahead. The on line workshop ‘Making the transition to university studies’ will help you to use it effectively.
At the end of each week reflect on how your lifestyle is working for you . If necessary, you can modify your goals and your weekly planner so that you make the best use of your time.
Sometimes events occur that were not expected and they can have significant consequences for the way we spend our time and energy. It is important to be aware that dealing with the unexpected, with competing demands and with change can have both positive and negative effects. These effects:
With this awareness you can develop a management plan to allow you to make the most of the opportunities and to minimise the negative effects.
A part of any good management strategy is stress management. Make sure that you incorporate time into your weekly schedule for activities that help you to relax. Staying physically healthy is an essential part of maintaining the balance in your life. For more information on stress management strategies and how to apply them see the on line workshop ‘Making exam anxiety work for you' .
When the demands are great and stress levels increase it is easy to feel overwhelmed and difficult to find the motivation to focus on tasks such as study. Just when you need to be using your time most efficiently and effectively you may find that you are unable to concentrate and you look for things to do that will distract you from the tasks that seem so overwhelming. At these times it can help to:
The on line workshop ‘Finding the motivation to study’ provides more information and strategies you can use to refocus on your goals and get your lifestyle back on track.
