Study Skills

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Study Skills

• Time Management
• Hospira
• Wednesday 8th Feb

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Time Management

• Most people believe that there is a direct
  relationship between study time doing well at
  college. E.g. You will achieve better results in
  examinations the more time you spend studying.
• This is not the CASE!! As we are all aware you
  can sit in front of a book for hours yet take in
  nothing! (Except daydream)
• It should be remembered that it is quality not
  quantity of your study that determines the
  effectiveness of your learning

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Time Management

• For example, one hour spent looking up answers to
  a specific question is more beneficial than two
  hours spend passively reading a textbook
• Rewriting lectures notes to make them neater is
  not as useful as trying to summarise the key
  point they contain
• According to Moran (1997) Wasting study time
  means spending it unwisely on activities which
  you know to be irrelevant to your academic goals

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Time Management

• From a mature students perspective combining
  study home life in an effective way can be a
  serious challenge!!
• As a student in the foundation programme you will
  be expected to undertake independent work outside
  class time. For example, you will need to find
  time to work on assignments essays, read over
  lectures notes
• So what you must do is balance these demands with
  your family/domestic commitments along with your
  work in Hospira

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Time Management

• As you will already know organised workers tend
  to do better than disorganised ones, students in
  LYIT are no different! So effective time
  management is a very important skill to develop.
• As a starting off point it can be beneficial if
  you examine a typical week in your life to
  determine how much time you will have for study
• Use last week as an example see how mush of
  your time was taken up by the following everyday

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Time Management

• This is what you give a full time student
• Lectures
• Library visits study
• Domestic family time
• Socialising relaxing
• Work
• Travel
• Sleeping Eating
• Other
• Summarising your time allows you to understand
  how much time you really spend in the various
  areas of your life

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Time Management

• Now you can clearly see where you are spending
  your time. For example if you find that you do
  not have enough time for study yet your watching
  X amounts of T.V or socialising, the time table
  will indicate that you should reduce these
  activities in order to find the extra time for
  your study/college work.
• However, you may find some things take priority
  over others. Can you ask for help from the people
  who share you life? For example will someone else
  do the shopping cooking on certain days to give
  you more time.

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Time Management

• One of the most important things about time
  management approaches is to start them early in
  the academic calendar. Dont wait until your
  falling behind in work to start a time management
  approach
• This will result in crammed schedules a lot
  more stress worry!!
• The following time management system may be of
  some use to you, or you may find certain aspects
  of it useful

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Time Management

• Goal Setting
• What are you goals? Sometimes is helps to divide
  your goals into time frames (immediate goals,
  short-term goals, long-range goals)
• E.g. long-range goal complete the foundation
  certificate, short-term goals do class
  assignment for next week, immediate goals read
  over lecture notes before going to class
• Before going any further write down a list of
  goals you want to achieve (work, study, home)

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Time Management

• Look at the goals you have listed ask
  yourself the following
• Are you actively working on these goals?
• Are you putting any of them off?
• Are any of the tasks you will do today
  contributing to accomplishing the goals you have
  set for yourself
• It can be helpful to spend just five minutes
  every day writing down some specific study goals
  for that day. By doing this you have something
  tangible to study, thus getting distracted less
  by other material

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Time Management

• As already mention breaking goals down into
  smaller pieces can be of great help. Take for
  example the goal of finishing your Foundation
  Certificate, this in itself may seem quite
  daunting!
• However, you can break this down into more
  manageable pieces. E.g. The certificate is
  broken 4 sub goals, each module Business, Maths,
  Communications IT. Again each of these can be
  broken down further into goals assignments,
  presentations, tests, final Exams.
• So the key is to take each step at a time, not
  to get stressed out about the bigger picture

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Time Management

• Time Awareness Time Tracking
• As we have already covered by drawing up our new
  time tables! By knowing exactly how you are
  spending your time should make it easier to
  manage your time well.
• Other ways of tracking your time are as follows
• At the end of every hour just jot down a few
  sentences about what you actually did for that
  hour. This way you will be able to see what
  patterns are emerging in your use of time thus
  make changes to improve your productivity. Are
  you doing what you planned to do?

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Time Management

• Planning
• Just like in any business or organisation
  planning is a key function which helps in
  achieving various objectives, be they long or
  short term. This approach can also be applied to
  studying.
• 2 planning tools which may help
• Monthly Planner
• Weekly Planner

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Time Management

• Monthly Planner
• This can be used as a memory aid, use it for
  tracking major exam/assignment dates,
  appointments, birthdays, holidays etc. A good
  monthly planner will inform you for upcoming busy
  periods.
• For example in May you might have an exam,
  presentation assignment due. With this in mind
  you can manage your time appropriately. You can
  also add in interim dates (which you can review
  the progress you feel your making)

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Time Management

• Weekly Planner
• This should be designed with all your daily
  activities in mind, work, domestic, study,
  lecture times, social etc. This is an important
  time management tool as it must encompass
  important tasks (like homework activities which
  move you towards your goals)
• Again its important that you prioritise your
  study tasks at the start of each week. Do you
  have something that has to be done this week as
  opposed to something you would like to do this
  week
• You should assign a time slot for each task for
  example Tuesday 10-10.30 read over bus lecture
  notes!!

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Time Management

• Its important that you associate specific tasks
  to specific times, e.g. maths on a Thursday
  Sunday. But its vital that you dont schedule
  important study activities to unrealistic work
  times.
• Pick a specific day each week to set the plan for
  the upcoming week. Once your week is planned you
  will feel must more focused confident in what
  you are studying is correct you are also
  utilising your time efficiently
• To maximise your concentration, study in blocks
  of 40-50 minutes. If you find yourself with
  10-20 to spare, why not look over some notes!!

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Time Management

• Taking Action
• Once you have set your goals, figured out how you
  are spending your time decided on a plan to
  help you achieve your goals, all that is left if
  to take action.
• The plan offers you a written representation of
  the decisions on how you will spend the coming
  week, so you dont have to spend time each days
  worrying about what tasks to do.
• As you begin remember that the plan can be
  flexible is not made in stone, some things may
  take longer than others, dont feel stressed our
  about this

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Time Management

• Try and stay focused on each task just do the
  best you can. By following the plan your
  progress you can learn from your mistakes good
  experienies along the way
• Time Shifting Adjusting
• Along the way at some stage or another you will
  have to make some adjustments to your plan time
  management habits. Some problems you encounter
  may be out of your control, so keep calm get
  back on track as soon as possible
• Problem under your control should be dealt with
  immediately so they dont get in the way of your
  goals

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Time Management

• A few problems which one should avoid are not
  knowing when or how to start your work, engaging
  in procrastination, also task hoping. So it is
  important to use your self-discipline to not get
  side tracked while also having confidence in what
  your doing is right.
• Finally, dont forget to keep doing the things
  you enjoy, whether that be exercise or meeting
  with friends. A good balance between study
  what you enjoy is a necessity!!

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Next Week

• Pick any newspaper article you want write up a
  small report on what interested you in the
  article.
• On Saturday just ask at reception and they will
  tell you where to go. Enjoy it!!