TIME MANAGEMENT

Session Overview – Aims

• Consider the difficulties of time management

• Introduce strategies to help
• Apply these strategies to studying
• Outcome: create a study plan of your week
What is time management?

‘the fact or process of using one's time more effectively

or productively, esp. at work; the use of particular skills
or techniques to achieve this.’ (OED 2021)

•Efficiency
•Prioritisation
•Concentration
•Boundary setting
Activity (5 minutes)

Pick a typical day and think about how you use it…

•What time do you get up / go to bed?

•What tasks do you do?
•What time do you do specific things?
•How long do you spend on these tasks?

Action: make a chronological list of your activities.

Discussion

• What did you find out (about your day)?  

• Was anything surprising?
• What do you prioritise?
• How does study time currently factor into your
routine?
How do I navigate this?

• Scheduling / effective planning

• Managing competing tasks
• Working pragmatically
• Importance of flexibility / ‘contingency
planning’ (Hochheiser, 1998, p. 62)
Strategies Overview

• Establish what time you have ‘free’

• Establish when you do specific tasks best
• Ringfence time (a little and often can be better than all or
nothing)
• Establish the focus of your session
Establishing ‘free’ time
Group your tasks / responsibilities based on priority
and (in)flexibility:

• Inflexible tasks (e.g. when you start work, when you drop off /
collect children from school)
• Tasks you should do (e.g. get enough sleep, eat regular meals)
• Tasks you want to do (e.g. social activities, sleep in)
• What’s left?
Activity (5 minutes)

Action: make a table of your week

•Include inflexible, ‘should do’ and

‘want to do’ tasks
•Circle remaining gaps
•Allocate a ‘reasonable’ study time
in these gaps
For example…
Discussion

• Does it look like you expected?

• What surprised you?
• Did you have more / less study time than expected?
• How might this shape the way you plan your week?
Setting times for tasks

Think about when you do certain tasks best…

•The ‘synchrony effect’ (Goldstein, et al., 2007); or, morning people like
mornings…
•Types of tasks; reading, planning, writing, admin
•Making the most of your less effective time (i.e. admin, referencing,
organising)
•Intention setting to combat procrastination
Activity (5 minutes)

Look at the circled study time areas…

•Allocate task types (reading, writing, planning, admin) to specific slots

•Set reasonable lengths of time (include breaks where needed)
•Do you need different lengths of time for different tasks?

Action: integrate these features into your weekly plan

Discussion

• Planned study time vs current working pattern – how do they

compare?
• What challenges do you face with your current working pattern?
• Does this planned approach address any of those issues?
• Are any alternate issues created by this new plan?
Ringfencing time
Set aside time for something, then try
and stick to it…

• Set achievable timeslots (e.g. a little and often)

• Reducing avoidance / disengagement Limiting
distractions
• Avoiding ‘academic procrastination’
Activity (5 minutes)

Choose a distraction (academic / nonacademic)…

•How does this impact your studies?

•What boundaries can you set to limit its impact before / during the
session?
•How might this improve your outcomes?

Action: write down your ideas

Discussion

• What kinds of distractions do you experience?

• What strategies did you generate?
• Do the strategies feel achievable?
• Are there pragmatic steps to support ringfencing time? Like
what?
Setting goals / Linking sessions 

• Establish session's focus; set achievable

outcomes (small goals develop bigger tasks) 

• Sequencing sessions to support the next

session 
• Prep to make the session productive (in advance)
• Create a goal to use in the next session (at the end)
Activity (5 minutes)

Produce a sequence of tasks for an assignment using the study gaps in your
week’s plan…

•Use the allocated time slots and tasks (admin, reading, writing, planning) as
a framework
•Set a goal for each session (e.g. researching definitions of ___, find research
on ___, write a paragraph on ___, etc.)
•Think about how sessions support each other (e.g. planning / quote
organising a section before writing a paragraph on this theme)
Discussion

• Does this change the way you will use your study time? How?
• How might it be difficult to implement? 
• How much flexibility is helpful when planning? Why?
• How might we adapt our planning to address these problems?
Your take away point…

• What one thing might you

do differently now?
Summary

Practical implementation of…

•Setting time for tasks

•Grouping types of tasks
•Considering when you do specific tasks well
•Committing time to specific tasks
•Setting achievable goals
•Sequencing sessions to support assignment development
To Find Out More…

https://libguides.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/skills-for-learning/independent-lear
ning-and-time-management
  ​
 Skills for Learning
• Access academic skills guides on the We provide support for:
Skills for Learning website •Essay Writing
• Develop your academic skills at a •Reflective Writing
Skills for Learning workshop •Critical Thinking
• Bring questions to our online Academic •Presentation Skills
Skills Drop-Ins •Study Skills
• Get some work done at an online Study •Maths
Café •IT
• Receive tailored support and guidance on •Referencing
assignments, English language skills and …And more!
more at a 1-1 appointment
To find out more, go to the:
Skills for Learning website
Library website
 Bibliography
• Forsyth, Patrick, Successful Time Management. Third Edition (London: Kogan Page, 2013)  ​​

• Goldstein, David, et al., ‘Time of day, intellectual performance, and behavioral problems in Morning
versus Evening type adolescents: Is there a synchrony effect?’​ Personality and Individual
Differences, 42.3 (2007), pp. 431-440. ​

• Hochheiser, Robert M., Time Management. Second Edition (New York: Barron’s Educational

Series, 1998)​

• OED, ‘time management’, Oxford English

Dictionary, 2021, <https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/202100?
redirectedFrom=time+management#eid261247456> ​[accessed 04/10/21].