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Time Management Scheduling

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African Customary law (JLXV201)

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Nelson Mandela University

Academic year: 2023/2024

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We all only have 24 hours in a day. While you cannot control time, you can control what you choose to do with yours.

Time Management

Techniques

1. Determine and Prioritise Your Goals

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2. Determine Your Priorities

Think about all of the different things that you are involved in and list them. Now, consider how you think you will spend your time on the different activities you are involved in right now. Keep in mind the goals you identified above. Complete your own time-wheel; there are 24 slices representing the 24 hours of the day. Making visual representation simply helps to quickly identity areas where you may be over- or under-capitalising on your time.

Use the wheel above to help determine your priorities. First consider the essential have-to- dos (e. your non-flexible commitments). Once you have scheduled in all of your ‘must-do’ commitments (priority), you will see how much time you have left for other commitments. Again, keep in mind the goals you identified and use these goals to help determine your priorities. Take the activities you identified in a day and work out how many hours you give to prioritised activities within your week. Priorities may change at different times in the year, so you may need to review this monthly, quarterly or per semester. Use the table over the page to help you with this exercise.

Your Time Wheel

3. Set up a Weekly Planner

A weekly planner allows you to keep track of your different responsibilities, and schedule your time appropriately to meet those responsibilities. Take all the activities identified from your priorities above and schedule them into your weekly planner. The remaining time can be used for other activities you would like to do, but are not essential, or that have more flexibility. In general, try to do similar activities at the same time each day as this will help to develop a routine. Make sure that you schedule in some relaxation or down time into your schedule. Not every cell in your planner needs to be allocated to an activity!

Tips for setting up a weekly planner:

Studying is often most effective immediately after a lecture/class. If possible, try to block out a study block immediately after a lecture.
Be realistic about how you are allocating your time. For example, if you know that you cannot concentrate when you are tired, do not schedule a regular study session after a long day of work/uni/family commitments.
Think about if you prefer a very structured or more flexible approach and use this information to set up your planner. If you like a lot of structure schedule specific activities at specific times. If you prefer a more flexible approach schedule blocks of time that you can decide what you want to work on, but plan this time the night before so you don’t waste it!
Don’t overschedule and fill up every part of your schedule. Leave small gaps to reduce the overwhelm and to allow for unplanned events that pop up.
Determine when you work best during your day and try to schedule more challenging tasks for that time of the day and identify times during the day that would be better suited to less challenging tasks.
If a task takes longer than scheduled, look ahead in your week and adjust your schedule so that you don’t fall behind.
Consider colour coding your schedule, or at least highlight really important blocks of time.
Don’t spend hours making your schedule look pretty, focus on functionality.
There are many different layouts for weekly planners. Find one that works for you.
A weekly planner is only useful if you follow it. Once you have put it together make sure that you put it somewhere where you can easily, and frequently, refer to it.
Keep it simple: Don’t make your lists overwhelming.
Use technology: Think about how technology could assist you to stay organised. Remember that too much technology could reduce your productivity, so try to only focus on one or two apps or programmes.
Assess spontaneous tasks critically: Determine the urgency of unplanned tasks that pop up spontaneously in your day. Critically assess the importance of a spontaneous task by running it through the priority, urgency, and effort test. Add it to your to-do list in an appropriate place.
Segment projects into tasks: Break projects down into manageable tasks that get put onto your to-do list.
Review and edit the list throughout the day: The to-do list is a living, breathing document that can change at any moment. It controls what you do in a day. Review it throughout the day and edit it as needed.
Review and assess progress: Schedule a time at the end of the day to assess your task list. Think about why tasks took longer than expected, or why tasks were easier/more difficulty than expected. This self-evaluation helps you understand your workflow.
Include calendar events: When setting your to-do list consult your weekly calendar as this will help you to find gaps in your time to complete your tasks.

5. Use Time Blocks

If the idea of a weekly planner does not appeal to you or feels too restrictive, consider the Time Block technique. Just remember, the bigger the task load, the more difficult it is to use the time blocking method, and conversely, the smaller the task at hand, the easier it is to fit into a small 5-minute time block slot.

Step 1: Divide a piece of ruled paper into two columns. On the left column allocate every two lines to each hour or 5- minute block of the day (whichever you prefer).

Step 2: Estimate the amount of time each task is going to take to complete, then write these tasks on the left column with their respective time blocks. Optional: add commentary notes in the corresponding right column. Be realistic in estimating the time needed to complete the task. When we’re too optimistic about how long a given task is going to take, we fail to completely follow through on what we set out to do. You can avoid this bias (also known as the ‘planning fallacy’) by keeping a timed record of how long your daily activities take to complete.

Step 3: Add buffer times or extra room around each time block to allow for adjustments or unexpected activities.

Tips for using time blocking:

Spend up to 10 minutes the previous evening completing your time blocks for the next day.
If you have bigger tasks to complete that may require a long time to complete, break these down into smaller subtasks and slot them into your time blocks.
Ensure that your time blocking plan will help you to manage and deal with interruptions effectively. Use the right column of the piece of paper to revise your plan should there be changes or interruptions during the day. Also designate or create buffer time blocks on your schedule for interruptions as noted in Step 3. Time blocking for ‘reactive’ work in this way could also help you to avoid overwhelm, reduce stress and stay focused throughout the day.

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