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Self Management
Self Management
Self management
Academic Tip Sheet
Setting priorities
Take the time to consider all the aspects in your life and ask yourself these questions: What are the important things in my life? Where do my priorities lie? Are all aspects of my life (family, study, leisure, friends) receiving attention? What are the long-term outcomes of what I am doing? How does study form part of the total picture?
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Self-management techniques
Some of the practical techniques you can adopt are to: learn to cope with stress (see a counsellor for assistance if needed); develop your self esteem and personal confidence; develop effective strategies to cope with conflicts; develop a positive attitude to study; be patient learning and academic skills develop gradually; reappraise your situation regularly and make the adjustments required to succeed; learn from feedback to prevent repeating your mistakes; maintain a healthy lifestyle; reward yourself with time off from study (in moderation!; and learn to manage your time better.
time goes. Develop a study timetable and allot regular study times. Plan ahead and identify objectives for each study session. Vary your learning activities. Learn to prioritise tasks. Make revision active and ongoing. Be realistic about your commitments leave some time for emergencies and to catch-up Monitor how much time is required for various tasks and adjust your routines accordingly. Decide on a task and keep working on it until it is completed. If interruptions occur, deal with them and then go back to the task. Break large tasks into smaller, manageable ones. Schedule 1-2 hour study sessions with clear goals. Make better use of small blocks of time such as time between lectures and public transport travel time. Team up to tackle tasks. Dont underestimate the time needed for study.
thereby putting off the assignment writing. Stay with the purpose and focus of your research. If you find other exciting material, take a record of where it is to be found, and move on! One of the main causes of procrastination is perfectionism. Perfectionists procrastinate as they are scared that they will not get it right, so they stress about starting. Other causes of procrastination include: anxiety; self-depreciation; low discomfort tolerance; pleasure seeking; time disorganisation; environmental disorganisation; poor task approach; lack of assertion; hostility with others; and stress and fatigue. If you tend to procrastinate, perhaps you could examine this list, see which one (ones?) apply to you and try and do something to reduce the cause.
Self-management checklist
Are you clear about your life goals? Are you achieving a balance between study, rest and play? Do you have a clear time-management strategy? What strategies do you have in place to avoid procrastination?
Study
Your time is a limited resource so use it wisely. Make a plan, then trial, evaluate and adapt it where necessary! Keep to a regular study routine wherever possible; however, always treat yourself gently. Accept that there are times when you simply need to break routines. There is a huge variation in the times that are best for effective study. For some, the most appropriate time for study is at 5.00am. For others, top gear is achieved no earlier than 10.00pm. Generally, study in one to one and a half hour time spans. However, at times when you are really absorbed, you may wish to keep working longer. This can often happen when youre researching a particularly fascinating area, or you have found useful links on the Internet. Longer time spans also seem appropriate when you are writing a draft. In other instances, such as finance calculations, or very intensive critical thinking sessions, shorter periods may be more effective.
References
Bernard, M. E. (1991). Procrastinate later. Melbourne: Schwartz & Wilkinson. Kanar, C. C. (2001). The confident student (4th ed.). New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. Pauk, W. (1997). How to study in college (6th ed.). New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. Payne, E., & Walker, L. (2000). Developing essential study skills. Harlow: Financial Times/Prentice Hall. Smith, M., & Smith, G. (1991). A study skills handbook for students studying in English. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Time-management techniques
Here are a few techniques to adopt: Use a wall planner to plan for the semester. Use a diary to plan ahead. Have a list of things to do and their completion date. Review your week and identify where your
Procrastination
Everybody tends to put off commencing an assessment task. Some people, however, consciously keep delaying even when they know that the delay will result in serious disadvantages. When researching an assignment some students procrastinate by reading lots of interesting irrelevant material,
Acknowledgements
This material was modified from source documents prepared by Kaye Haddrill and Kuki Singh, ECU, 2007. Editor: Trevor Bennett.