Technical problems in time management

When we lose something tangible and visiable, we feel the pain and miss it easily.

Yet we do not feel the same for time lost as time is not so tangible and visiable.

Changing your perspective on time and remove the obstacles that hold you back from organizing your time efficiently will make your study excel.

Beside the Pareto principle, i.e., the 80-20 rule I mentioned in my last blog, one needs to look at sometechnical problems and obstacles that block one in using one's learing time efficiently.

First, what are the technical problems?

* Set the wrong time for study
* Miscalculated time needed for learning certain tasks
* Do not break complex learning task in to managible chunks
* Forget to revise whatever you learn in class immediately after the lesson
* Learning space too disorganized


Solutions to the problems:

* Set the wrong time for study
- Choose the right time for right tasks

Just remember that you are a different learner in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening. If your memory works best in the morning, then use the morning hours to learn things that you need to remember by heart. If your creative thinking power is the best at night, then do your problem solving tasks during the late hours.

* Miscalculated time needed for learning certain tasks
- Allow yourself extra time to learning tasks that you fail to achieve

No one can be right all the time in time allotcation. It is good to give yourself 10 to 20% extra time in learning new tasks or doing difficult projects. You will feel more at ease if you have some spare time to explore tasks or to master it. If you are able to do it within the time limit, use the extra time you set aside to reward yourself, like have a good tea break!

* Do not break complex learning task in to managible chunks
- Make complex tasks achievable using a step-by-step approach

No one can submit an academic assignment without proper planning. To plan means to break complex task like academic assignment into managible stages/chunks: e.g., data collection, data analysis, main findings and discoveries, reporting and charting of findings/results, final analysis and conclusions etc. Wtih the time frame set for each stage, one can complete the assignment in stages with ease. It is not possible to do an assignment if you do not plan and manage them step-by-step.

* Forget to revise whatever you learn in class immediately after the lesson
- Do it immediately after class within the first few hours or on the same day

Revision make learning easy, especially if you do it immediately after class. If you are unable to do it within the first few hours, do it every night before you sleep, revise all that you have noted down in your notes. On every weekend, revise all that you have noted down during the week. Before the exam, it is important to revise all that is needed for the exam.

* Learning space too disorganized
- Organize your space so that you can find things you need

You need not have your learning space organized like a library or a stationary shop. What you need is some organization that allows you to find things when you need them. Some learners cannot study well when their learning space is too neat. They practice organized mess to stimulate their thought. If you are one of them, just be sure that the mess you created in your study space is an organized one in your mind. If your mind have a good index to retrieve what you need, that is fine! Just remember, use system that works on you!

Cheers!


Dexterine Ho