LIFE ORIENTATION

GRADE 11
Study skills and methods
Unit 3 - Time management
 Study skills and methods
Unit 3
Time management
Time management and annual study plan
Managing your time correctly and effectively will enable you to take control of
your life.
• Use a blank calendar, large enough to write in each day's activities.
• Use different colours to indicate the various activities so that you can order all
activities.
• Identify time wasters and work out possible solutions for dealing with them.
• Once you have completed the calendar, put it up somewhere visible in your
study area for easy reference.
• Follow it as far as possible.
• There might be times when you have to deviate from the schedule, but do not
abandon it.
Here is an example:

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

05:00
06:00
07:00
08:00
09:00
10:00
11:00
12:00
13:00
14:00
15:00
16:00
17:00
18:00
19:00
20:00
21:00
22:00
Schedule guidelines
• Study when you are alert (morning/night).
• Study when there are least distractions and noise.
• Do not study longer than three consecutive hours at a time.
• Implement the schedule and stick to it.
• Study skills, methods and strategies only become study habits if you practise
them regularly.

Setting study goals

It is important to set goals when you study, otherwise you will be running around in
circles, getting nowhere. In the first term you learnt about setting long-term,
medium-term and short-term goals. Go back to the chapter on goal setting and read
it again if you do not remember. Below is an example of a grid showing study goals
for one term:

What do I need What

Previous
Subject Goal to do to get support do I Timeframe
Mark
there? need?

Activity
Set some goals for your own study programme for this term. You should set goals
for each subject. They can be in any form you prefer, but have to include:
• your long-term goal for each subject for this term
• your medium-term goals for each subject. Where do you want to be by the middle
of the term?
• your short-term goals for each subject. What do you want to have achieved by
every Friday evening of this term?