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Learning How to Learn

Why is Time Management Important?

If you struggle keeping on task when studying or working on assignments, you may benefit from improving your Time Management skills. These skills can help you work more efficiently to stay focused and use your time more effectively. Two ways that you can work on your time management skills are the Pomodoro Technique and Prioritization.

Visit the links below to find lists of tips and tricks for improving your time management skills.

Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique is a very popular and frequently recommended technique for people who struggle to focus on tasks. It can be very useful for studying, working on assignments, or most tasks that require focus.

To use this technique:

  1. Set a timer
    • The most commonly used interval is 25 minutes
  2. Work until timer goes off
  3. Take a 5 minute break
  4. Set the timer again, work until it goes off
  5. After 4 timers, take a longer break
    • For example, 30 minutes
  6. Repeat as many times as needed

This pattern will look something like this:

An image summarizing the Pomodoro Technique

(Image by Jono Hey,  CC BY-SA 4.0, via sketchplanations.com)

Prioritization refers to deciding in what order you will work on your tasks. This is usually based on what tasks are the most important based on factors like difficulty, how long it will take to complete, or when the deadline is.

One technique that you can use is a Priority Matrix.

An image visually demonstrating a priority matrix

(Adapted from Image by Davidjcmorris, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)

To use a priority matrix:

  1. Create a list of tasks that you need to accomplish. This could be subjects to study for exams or assignments you need to complete. 
  2. Draw a box like in the image above on a piece of paper, or create a table in a Word document on your computer.
  3. Assess the Urgency and Importance of your tasks. Apply labels of Urgent / Not Urgent and Important / Not Important to each task
    • Urgency may be based on the due date of an assignment or when an exam is taking place. 
    • Importance may be based on how much of a course grade an assignment is worth. If you are studying, importance may be based on how well you already know a topic. Unfamiliar topics are likely more important to study than topics you are already familiar with.
  4. Place the tasks inside the correct box according to your assessments.
  5. Start working on the tasks in the Quadrant I: Urgent and Important  box first.
  6. Work on Quadrant II: Not Urgent but Important then work on Quadrant III: Urgent but Not Important.
  7. Work on Quadrant IV: Not Urgent and Not Important tasks last.

 

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