Time Management

At the start of each Hexamester, it’s important to plot out all of your commitments and everything you need to do.

It’s best to have a Hexamester view (such as using a calendar, diary, or wall planner), where you can see the structure of the Hexamester and where most of your assignments will fall.

For instance, if you have a lot of assignments due in Week 3, you’ll be able to prepare for this by planning ahead. Equally, it’s important to also have a weekly view where you can plot out what days and hours are available for you to complete your uni work.

If you have paid work and other responsibilities, include them on your plans as well. The idea is to get a fuller picture of what time you have available so you can apportion each task. This will help you feel more confident and comfortable with the workload.

SMART goals are: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely.

We don’t want to set ourselves goals that are unrealistic, because it will only make us feel bad when we don’t achieve them.

Consider how to approach your tasks using the SMART goals framework, and make sure each step is working for you.

When you are developing your SMART goals, one of the key steps is to ‘chunk’ the goals into a set of smaller tasks.

If an assignment is due on a Friday, we don’t want to just write ‘do assignment’ in our daily plan for the two weeks prior, because that may appear a bit overwhelming and we wouldn’t know where to start.

Whenever you have a task – and particularly an assessment task – consider how you can break it up into a series of smaller steps. What are the essential elements of approaching this assignment?

We recommend as a basic framework:

Analyse the task to make sure you really understand what it is asking you to do; Brainstorm and work out your initial ideas; Write an initial plan that will direct your research; Read and research; then Write a second plan; and finally commence Drafting.

Each of these steps can be chunked down further and incorporated into your project timeline.

The point is to end up with a plan that is detailed, measurable, and achievable. ‘Make initial plan’ and ‘search database for X’ will seem a lot more approachable on your plan than ‘do assignment’, and you’ll find it easier to motivate yourself to embark on the work.

Under what conditions do you do your best work? Is it in the mornings at the kitchen bench? Is it in the evenings when the kids are in bed?

Consider how and when you work best in order to be most efficient in producing work that’s of a high quality.

For this step to work, it’s important to know what times are available to you to do your uni work.

This is where Step 1. Have a plan is crucial, so that you know what times you’re working with.

We all have trouble every now and again with project planning and time management. That’s okay! Sometimes we need some extra resources or someone in the know who we can talk to.

For more tailored advice, you can chat to one of our Academic Learning Facilitators one-on-one for an individual consultation. This is a free online service that you can book to discuss time management, other academic skills, or any aspect of your academic writing, including reviewing drafts of your work.

See our Academic Skills page for more information and to book a consultation.