LibGuides: Library and learning skills: Manage time and info

Manage your time, info and wellbeing

“I recommend to you that you take care of the minutes; for hours will take care of themselves."

Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield

It’s easy to let a heavy workload and busy schedule overwhelm you. But knowing how to manage your time can help even the busiest person stay on top of things. Time management is a great skill to have not only for studying but throughout your whole life. This module provide techniques and suggestions to help you be more efficient with your study time and able to fit more into your days.

Styles of time management

Through nature, nurture and practice, young adults have already developed some methods and habits for managing time. Like many aspects of our personality, our time management traits can have positive and negative effects.

Complete this quick quiz which explores some time management traits in a fun way.

The importance of a routine

Treat your study day like a working day. The day should have solid periods of productive work time separated with restful breaks. The Pomodoro technique is a “distraction fighting, brain training" technique that encourages you to work in short blocks and remain consistently productive. It can help you stay truly focused on a task without becoming distracted.

The technique is simple to implement and all you need is a timer. Essentially it involves:

working for 25 minutes
followed by a short 5 minute break
do this four times
then take a longer break, say 20 minutes.

Some other practical techniques

Avoid procrastination

Deal with distractions

Consider the time you will spend in your study space

Create balance

Managing information

Managing information effectively is an important skill. It involves knowing how to organise, store and share information.

When deciding where to store your documents, you should consider:

Who needs access?
Should the information be public or private?
Is the information confidential?
Do you have a back-up?

Version control is very important. You can get confused tracking old versus current versions of your document. It’s even more difficult when members of a group edit a shared document. Consider:

Does the software you are using support version control?
Have you saved a back-up of your files, so you don’t lose your work
Do you need to track the history of your document?
How will you name your files to help with tracking?

When you are saving and organising your files, try naming the documents and folders in a way that makes sense. This will help ensure your files and data can be easily located.

Apply a consistent format to naming your files, for example:

In this example the document title can be broken down into sections:

The date format: YYMMDD
The Unit Code
The Document Title
The Document Title

When you are deciding on a file naming convention, consider:

Avoiding punctuation, use dashes rather than spaces
Making file names short, but meaningful
Incorporating the date in a file or folder name

Top Tech Tips

Helping you manage your time, info and wellbeing

If you don’t have a timer handy, there are many Pomodoro apps and browser extensions available.

There are a range of tools available to you that make storing, organising, and sharing information easier. Compare some of the tools on the Managing Information webpage.