Online Study Skills and Managing Time Part 3
Step 3: Prioritizing Time
Finally, Step 3: Get better at prioritizing.
Due dates are important. Set your short and long-term goals accordingly. Ask yourself:
- What needs to get done today?
- What needs to get done this week?
- What needs to get done by the end the 1st month of the semester?
- What needs to get done by the end the 2nd month of the semester?
- What needs to get done by the end of the semester?
Your time is valuable. Treat it accordingly by getting the most you can out of it.
Above all: avoid PROCRASTINATION.
Procrastination is the kiss of death to the online learner because it's incredibly difficult to catch up once you've fallen behind. Do you have a problem procrastinating? We're going to ask you a few questions in this final segment and if you find yourself saying, "Sounds like me," more often than you say, "No way," you'll really want to be on your guard so that procrastination doesn't become an issue for you.
Procrastination Check List
Consider the following issues:
- My paper is due in two days and I haven't really started writing it yet.
- I've had to pull an all-nighter to get an assignment done on time.
- I've turned in an assignment late or asked for an extension when I really didn't have a good excuse not to get it done on time.
- I've worked right up to the minute an assignment was due.
- I've underestimated how long a reading assignment would take and didn't finish it in time for class.
- I've relied on the internet for information (like a summary of a concept or a book) because I didn't finish the reading on time.
If these sound like issues you've struggled with in the past, you might want to think seriously about whether you have the tendency to procrastinate, and how you want to deal with it in your future classes. You're already spending a lot of time, energy, and money on the online classes you're taking—don't let all of that go to waste!
Procrastination Pie
But don't worry! We are here to help. The following five pieces of our "procrastination pie" provide some strategies for overcoming these challenges:
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- Keep your studying "bite-sized": when confronted with 150 pages of reading or 50 problems to solve, you may understandably feel overwhelmed. What if you decide that you will read for 45 minutes, or that you will solve 10 problems? That sounds much more manageable.
- Turn off your phone, close your chat windows, and block distracting websites. The best advice we've ever heard is to treat your studying as if you're in a movie theater—just turn it off!
- Set up a reward system: if you read for 40 minutes, you can check your phone for 5 minutes. But keep in mind that reward-based systems only work if you stick to a code of self-honor.
- Study in a place reserved for study ONLY. Your bedroom may have too many distractions (or the ever-present temptation of a quick nap…), so stay out of there when working on school assignments.
- Use checklists: Make your incremental accomplishments visible. Some people get great satisfaction and motivation from checking items off a "to do" list. Be very specific when creating this list, and clearly describe each task one step at a time.
Conclusion
Congratulations! You're well on your way through this Online Readiness course. In this module we've provided many ideas for time management, assignment organization, and avoiding procrastination, but there are still hundreds of additional resources online. Seek out some of these for further help – you're sure to find tools and strategies that will work well for your individual style.
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