Hi, I'm Libby, I'm a first year student at BCU, and I have eight time management tips for you as a uni student. So the first tip is dividing up your tasks. So, I suggest maybe seeing which is smaller and which is larger in terms of time. So for example, if you're doing an essay, you could say, the introduction takes me only half an hour, but the method and the citations will take me hours, so if I only have 45 minutes right now, I'll do the tasks that I know I have enough time to do, rather than trying to cram in all the longer ones and then it taking more time. So my second tip for you guys is to set realistic goals. So this means, you know, not aiming too high for yourself when it comes to simple tasks. It kind of falls into the last tip that I gave you, because if you only have a certain amount of time and you overestimate how much you can actually achieve in that, it might end up in you actually doing less than expected, and then you don't want this sort of behaviour where you don't think you've done enough. You'd rather do small goals, small realistic goals, achieve them, and then, you know, before you know it, you've actually done more than you probably anticipated in the first place. So tip number three is actually planning a schedule. So this is usually based around the week rather than going too far ahead because you never know plans might come up. For me personally I never had a schedule until I started university. Because I became, you know, so much more busy, compared to when I was in school, so I thought a schedule might help. I know that I have rugby training on Monday and Wednesday so they're, you know, ruled out when I can do work. I go home at the weekends, so I probably won't do much then. So I know that between lessons and then maybe anything that I choose to do in the moment or decide to go out for dinner, etc., so I know that I have enough hours to actually do the work that is needed for me, you know, to do each week, without having to panic. Because I don't think panicking actually helps you do much work. So basically, creating a schedule can actually help you to, you know, switch on and off from workload and also enjoying your life as well, so it's very handy in that sense. So moving on from that point actually takes you to tip number four, which is keeping in contact. So this might be, you know, friends from home before university, family as well, people who have moved on to different universities or even your friends within university. You know, this can help if you put it into your schedule like you've just made in tip number three. It will help you, you know, it will boost morale, it will help you detox from all the work that you might be stressing about. And it's really important to keep in contact with people because, you know, it can be quite comforting in times of like challenging workloads from university. So tip number five is to exercise. This keeps your mind and your body, you know, fit and healthy and it kind of distracts you from all the stressful work that you might be doing. You can do this by joining a society like I did. I joined the Rugby Society. And this, you know, keeps me busy for a couple of days a week, where I'm not really thinking about university, I'm thinking about, you know, training where I'm going this week where I'm playing. And you can also, you know, just go for walks by yourself, if you really want to, you can go, you know, walk back to town, walk around campus, or you could join a gym that many people do the student discounts for gyms as well, so if money is an issue, then you know there's always that option as well. So tip number six is to get rid of any distractions that might be in your way. This is mainly including your phone and television. So I'd suggest maybe either turn off your phone completely, putting it in a different room or do what I like to do personally is I will put my phone on Do Not Disturb, and I'll just change it so that only, like emergency contacts can get through. That means no notifications come through, but I have the comfort of knowing where my phone is at all times because I'm practically attached to the thing. But also, if you can't go five minutes without sitting on your phone, then there are apps that can help you with work. In something like Flora, which help you, like grow plants and stuff when you're doing your revision or when you're doing your work. However, some people do struggle to focus without having the TV on, such as, people with ADHD. So if this does actually help you and benefit your work, then obviously don't get rid of them, they're not distractions, they're actually benefit in your work. So tip number seven is to write things down. This is quite important even though I didn't think it would be before starting uni. But when you write things down and put it in a place where you're going to see every single day actually kind of ingrained in your brain, like what you need to do if you write down, oh, I need to write a critical reflection on this piece, or I need to do my research for this module, it makes you think and think you know, the more times you say it, you know, oh, I haven't actually done that yet, I need to get on with it. So write things down, it just makes it more set in stone, what you need to do rather than just thinking about it. So you can do this through bullet pointing or even writing full sentences of what you need to do. But you can also do this day by day. So say you don't actually complete a task on a Monday night, you can write it down, get it done by the Tuesday. So tip number eight is actually find out what works for you. I've obviously given some really good tips here, but they might not be suitable for your style of work and so it's more of an experimental process of finding out what works, what doesn't work. You know, sometimes you might try something for one module and it might be great, but then if you try it for a different module, it might be like, oh, actually, this isn't as time efficient as I thought it would be. So I guess, you know, just actually seeing what works for you is the best possible way to manage your time. So there are my eight tips for time management. I really hope it helped you and I wish you all the best on starting university.
