When studying at school or university, you will normally be enrolled in more than one subject or course each semester. The busiest and most stressful time of a semester is when examinations and assignment deadlines are approaching, usually all at the same time! But you can easily reduce this stress or even avoid this situation with good time management and motivation. The first thing you should have in order to organise your time is a schedule. It is not easy to remember everything without putting it down onto your schedule or planner. You may need to find a paper planner, which you can buy from a bookstore or download from a website. Or, you can make your own D.I.Y planner. It is suggested that you use one that contains a yearly planner, weekly planner and daily planner. Alternatively, if you are a technology expert, it is a good idea to use an online calendar or planner such as Google Calendar or any online planner that you can use to create to-do lists, make notes, and on some websites, set reminders to remind you about an activity or event via email or text message. To manage your time effectively, you need to have good self-management. Your plan will not be successful if you cannot manage yourself to follow the plan. Planning how and when you will study and complete your assignments is crucial, and you need to stick to your plan as much as possible. When you make your plans initially, you should note them down even though you may change them later. Sometimes, you may not be able to complete a task or an assignment following the plan. You can be flexible about this depending on situation. If you need to cancel a plan or change it, you must ensure you do so only if you have no other choice because there is something more important that must be done at that time. Do not postpone the completion of tasks just because you are lacking motivation or prefer to have leisure time. It is important to manage your daily life, family issues, employment and hobbies to ensure you have enough time left for studying. When managing your time, you can organise yourself by determining the priority of each task. A task that is due to be completed sooner must come first. For tasks that need a long time to complete, for example, studying for your final exam, you can divide it into sections. It is easier and less boring than do it in one sitting. Some tasks may be hard for you or you may not want to do them. For example, you may have an assignment from a difficult subject that you do not like. You must find motivation to complete it. It is advisable to list the benefits of completing the task as well as the disadvantages of not doing it. When you have written this list, it allows you to decide using reason rather than emotion. If there is an unexpected situation or a problem, it is likely that you will be able to deal with it easily once you have made this good start with time management and motivation. This planning will give you enough time to prepare yourself to effectively complete any task! featured image by psyberartist
