1. Time management

2. Time management: introduction
1) Why is time management important?
3) What influences our ability to effectively time manage?
2) What could be the benefits of good time management?
Suggested procedure:
Get students discuss the above questions in groups. Conduct whole class feedback for each question?
Get students to individually fill survey “Where does time go” and conduct brief whole class feedback
4) Are you good at time management? Why?/Why not?

3. Time management: breaking bad habits
Suggested procedure:
Get students to individually fill out only the left-hand column of Hand-out 1 “Breaking bad habits”
Each student presents two of their issues to the group and the group discusses possible solutions/ strategies. Allow enough time for this.
Conduct whole class feedback. On the board, you could create a list of “the biggest time-wasting activities” in this group together with possible solutions.
Students complete any gaps in the right-hand column of the hand-out individually.

4. Time management: procrastination
Why do we procrastinate?
When are we most likely to procrastinate?
Suggested procedure:
Get students to discuss the above questions in groups and then conduct brief whole class feedback.
Watch the video as a whole class:
After watching the clip you might ask students if they have their own methods of stopping procrastination. You may wish to make a list of those on the board.
Distribute the worksheet (Hand-out 2) and focus on point 3 “Ignore siren’s song”. Ask students to list in their groups methods they use to avoid distractions. Conduct whole class feedback. You may wish to make a list of those methods on the board.
Introduce The Pomodoro Technique as a way to stay focused.
Extra resource: A funny and engaging talk about procrastination “Inside the mind of a master proctrastinator”
Are you a procrastinator?

5. Time management: The Pomodoro Technique
Suggested procedure:
Having played the clip, conduct whole class feedback and the pros and cons of this approach. You might wish to give students time to first work on this in groups.
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6. Time management: prioritise
Suggested procedure:
1) Introduction:
Alongside your planning, you'll need to prioritise different tasks as you juggle everything that's going on, especially at busy times when you may have a lot of deadlines to meet.
Question: Ask your students to discuss in groups how they prioritise what they have to do. Conduct whole class feedback.
2) One way of prioritising is to use the important / urgent matrix (shown above).
Task:
Make a list of the things you need to do, then put your tasks into one of these four categories to decide what needs to be done straight away. If it is important and urgent, it probably does!
3) Another technique is to use the two minute rule: sometimes it can be most efficient to do new tasks as you get them, but consider how much time they will take and how important they are. Usually, if they are only going to take two minutes, just do them straight away, otherwise add them to your to-do list.
4) Finally, some people use the 80/20 Pareto principle. This says that 80% of the results you get come from 20% of the effort you put in, so make sure you focus on what's really important.
For example, if you have three hours of study time in the Library, rather than spending all the time reading four journal articles in detail, glance through 10 articles spending five minutes on each to decide which are most relevant. Then focus the rest of your time on the best two.
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7. Think about how you would plan a study session in detail.
Suggested procedure:
Students think individually how they would plan a study session in detail.
Students share their ideas with their group.
Conduct whole-class feedback.

8. Time management: organise
Here are some ideas how to organise your study time efficiently:
Set aside some time to study
Decide where you will work. What resources and environment will you need?
Set a realistic goal for your study session. What do you want to achieve?
Write yourself a reminder of everything you will need for your study session
Break down the goal into small chunks, and decide how long to spend on each
Note down any problems or questions that arise as you go along. Think about how you will address these at the end of the session
If you need help or clarification on your task, think about who you could ask.
Once you have your overall plan, you need to break your work down into small, manageable tasks. A daily to-do list can help to plan these, or you could make a weekly action plan to really make sure that you get those tasks completed. Try using post-its on your wall or desk, and take each one off when the task is completed.
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9. Sample study plan.
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10. Reflection
How much did you know about the subject before today’s class?
Have you learnt anything new about the topic? What?
Have you learnt anything about yourself?
From what was discussed in class, is there anything you would like to implement in your life?
From what was discussed in class, is there anything others could benefit from?
Suggested procedure
Students discuss these questions in their groups.
You may wish to conduct whole class feedback to wrap up the session.