One of the most alarming factors of enrolling at Unisa must surely be all the study material you receive in the form of tutorial letters and study guides. You may feel as if you do not know where or how to start. The first step in managing your time effectively is to plan and set specific objectives in terms of your long- and short-term planning.
The basic objective of long-term planning is to gain an overview of the academic activities over the whole year and to make sure that you keep track of all important dates, such as:
Set long-term objectives:
These are your long-term objectives. You should now plan more specifically in preparation for the examinations.
Preparation for examinations
Your main objective is to pass the examination in a specific subject. The 60:30:10 principle can be applied here. Look at some basic guidelines to help you reach your goals:
By consulting your year planner, you can see the following:
You will not have to worry about the future because you have planned your time so that you can meet all your commitments. Knowing that you've done this will give you more peace of mind, which is important in keeping you motivated.
Short-term planning is something you do weekly and daily. This helps you to work out how much study time you have at your disposal. You need to draft a master schedule that you can use as a basis for weekly and daily planning.
Hours | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
06:00-07:00 | Breakfast; commuting; office | Sleep | Sleep, Family & Relaxation | ||||
07:00-08:00 | x | ||||||
08:00-09:00 | x | ||||||
09:00-10:00 | x | ||||||
10:00-11:00 | x | ||||||
19:00-20:00 | Dinner | Dinner | Dinner | Dinner | Dinner | Relax & Sleep | x |
20:00-21:00 | x | Meeting | x | Meeting | x | x | |
21:00-22:00 | x | x | x | x | x | x | |
22:00-23:00 | x | x | x | x | x | Relax & Sleep | |
23:00-24:00 | x | x | x | x | x |
A weekly schedule will indicate the following:
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A master schedule clearly shows when you can do the work you've planned in your year planner. Your master schedule will not change very much from week to week, so you can make a few copies and just update them each week.
Planning your weekly schedule could be done as follows:
You must decide how you're going to use each day's time. This will take only a few minutes before you start your work. The benefit of planning your daily study schedule is that you have some definite objectives to pursue. Let’s look at an example of such a schedule:
60 minutes |
Quick skimming for superficial understanding; identification of major points; asking questions; study reading for a clearer understanding |
10 minutes |
Break |
60 minutes |
Making summaries and gaining more understanding by formulating questions and noting correlations |
30 minutes |
Break |
60 minutes |
Testing your knowledge by asking and answering questions |
All of us struggle at some time with avoiding tasks. To manage a habit of procrastination, make sure you have clear SMART goals - try to keep it specific when setting goals (for example, I need to study tonight versus I need to study Chapter 6 of the Psychology 101 textbook tonight from 9:00-11:00).
Listening to the following podcasts will help you to think about the things you need to have in place to have a successful study semester or year:
How to manage your time (MP3) Planning your time (MP3) |
Balancing your different life roles with your studies is challenging if you are not able to make effective use of the time you have available for your studies. Learn more about how you can manage your time effectively. |
Study @ Unisa is your study survival kit. Use the information in this guide to help you get started with your studies. In addition, the guide provides quick links to all the support offered by Unisa, as well as information regarding important processes such as submitting assignments.
Last modified: 2023/08/07