1. Managing self-study time, prioritising and planning
Transition Skills
Managing self-study time, prioritising and planning

2. Managing self-study time - prioritising and planning
Do you know that effective independent learning is a key requirement for success in higher education?
Do you know that managing your self study time and prioritising and planning your academic work will promote effective independent learning?
The first phase of this work identified that good time management and confidence in the ability to prioritise and to plan well in advance appear to be two extremely important strategies in promoting self-directed learning (Christie et al 2013). In addition, recognising the need to adapt to the new intellectual environment, coupled with an active awareness that time at university will be different from previous educational experiences at college also appear to be central to ensuring a successful transition to autonomous learning (Christie et al 2013).
If you answered ‘no’ to either of the above, you could benefit by developing your skills to manage and to get the most out of self-study time.

3. Managing your self-study time
A key characteristic of UK higher education is the emphasis placed on the responsibility of the student for their own learning (QAA 2015).
In higher education, a higher percentage of your time is left for you to manage and this is called self-study. The degree to which that self-study is directed varies.
Simply attending all of the classes on your timetable will not be enough for you to be a successful learner.
According to Briggs et al (2012), autonomous learning is a difficult but important goal because university assignments will demand more self-directed and independent
approaches to academic work (Krause and Coates 2008).

4. Try this activity: creating a baseline time tracker
In all aspects of your life it is important to manage your time. Now that you are studying in higher education more of your studying is done outside of class meetings on your timetable. This self-study may be on your own or with other students.
Using the handout or activity, consider yesterday (or another day of your choice) and add into each of the 30 minute slots what you were doing, for example, sleeping, eating, travelling, studying, in class, reading, surfing the internet with friends, watching telly, working, with family, exercising etc
Work out the totals and then what percentage is spent per activity?
Identify how much time is not allocated to anything and consider how this time can be harvested for self-study.
This activity will encourage students to work out what they currently do with the 24 hours of their day. They can then consider how to better use their time. It is important that they choose a typical day at college or university to use in this activity.
To minimise time spent on the workshop only one 24 hour period is tracked. Students should however be encouraged to track their time for a full 7 days and consider if they can find enough unallocated 30 minute periods to add up to 7 hours which effectively creates an 8 day week. This is time that can be harvested and used for self study without reducing time spent on part time work and leisure activities that help maintain a good balance. Such a healthy balance is more likely to protect students from future stress and anxiety.
15 minutes

5. Some facts about using time in higher education
A full time student is expected to study for hours per week. Subtract the time that you spend in class meetings from this number to get an estimate of the total amount of time that you should study.
A significant amount of time in higher education is allocated to self-study and independent learning. This is sometimes referred to as notional student effort.
Time spent sleeping, working, exercising and relaxing is just as important as time that you study and this will help you to maintain a healthy study life balance.
Phase 1 speaks about the need to make sure that students have a realistic view of how much time they need to devote to self-study. Notional student effort may be associated with individual modules and found in descriptors or programme handbooks.
It is always important to stress that studying is not the only thing a student should do and to emphasise that shorter study periods may be more effective than many unbroken hours.

6. Prioritising and planning your time and activity
Think about your week ahead as an empty jar which you are going to fill with tasks and activities.
Given that the assumption is that your overall objective is to be a successful student, every task and activity can be reviewed to decide if it is very important, important or not important.
Very important
Important
Not important
Now that students are more conscious of what the time expectations are and how they currently spend their time, the workshop moves on to looking at all of the activities that they spend time on and deciding what should be prioritised.

7. Prioritising very important tasks
This slide is based on the concept of the time jar. There are many resources such as Youtube videos which go through the process of illustrating filling the time jar. It is important to note that the jar represents a finite amount of time. The order in which tasks are done will determine whether everything is done at the end of the time period.
The jar on the left hand side represents the effect of prioritising less important tasks over the more important ones. The jar is so full of the unimportant and important tasks that there is not enough room for one of the 4 very important tasks. This could represent a missed coursework deadline for example. Too much rice in the jar before any beans or potatoes are added could be due to procrastination.
The jar on the right hand side represents the effect of making sure that all of the 4 very important tasks are prioritised. It also illustrates, however, that the less important tasks can still be completed with good planning and time management.
Note that the definition of very important, important and less important is with respect to the overall goal of being an effective independent learner and successfully completing a university qualification.

8. Try this activity: creating a time management grid
A time management grid can be used to help you to prioritise and manage your tasks and activities. Using this tool will help you to make sure, for example, that you don’t miss deadlines for coursework but you also plan ahead to make time to properly review your academic work and make time for longer term objectives such as end of year exams. Use the template provided and complete the following steps:
Identify everything you need to do in the coming 4 weeks. This is effectively a task or ‘to do’ list.
Consider the urgency and importance of each task and then type each of your tasks into the appropriate quadrant.
Re-order the tasks in the urgent and important quadrant so that the most urgent task is at the top of the list.
The quadrant is adapted from the work of Stephen Covey in his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People . A template has been provided into which the students can type lists of tasks and activities.
15 minutes

9. Try this activity: time management grid
Quadrant 1
Quadrant 2
Quadrant 3
Quadrant 4
Once students have completed this activity, further discussion can take place around the importance of the details of what is in each quadrant.
Quadrant 1 has a list of the important and urgent tasks that students need to do. They should have re ordered this list so that the most urgent task is at the top;
Quadrant 2 should contain longer term and development tasks;
Quadrant 3 has distractions and less important tasks that have a time pressure associated with them;
Quadrant 4 has what might be thought of a low value tasks but these can provide relaxation. Procrastination may also be an issue here.
Discussion can take place around encouraging students to look for some balance in the use of the time management. If too many tasks are in Quadrant 1 then they may be managing their life so that too much energy is spent fire fighting. Why have important tasks become urgent? Are there any strategies that could help them to deal with a higher percentage of important tasks before they become urgent and thus lower potential levels of stress and anxiety?

10. Supporting effective independent learning
By adopting a good strategy to manage your time and by prioritising and planning ahead using some of the tools provided in this workshop, you will better equip yourself to become an effective independent learner. Being an effective independent learner is a key requirement for success in higher education.
Independent Learning
Deep understanding
Develop skills
Sense of belonging
Deeper Understanding: By managing and planning your independent study time you can develop deeper understanding of the subject material because you find out more than you are told in class.
Skills Development: Graduate capabilities and employability skills can be enhanced.
This slides attempts to link the development of time management and prioritising and planning in earlier slides with the key skill of Independent Learning.
that was identified in Phase 1.
A recent report commissioned by QAA and the Higher Education Academy (2015) discusses in great detail the benefits of directed independent learning. Some of these include
developing a deeper understanding of the subject matter, promoting life-long learning, developing a sense of belongingness to the academic community and the institution, as well as enhancing graduate capabilities and employability skills (HEA 2015). The full report can be found at the following URL
Sense of Belonging: A sense of belonging to the academic community and the institution can be developed along with networking with fellow learners.

11. Strategies for independent learning
Use these strategies to improve your time management, prioritising and planning skills
Organise your self-study time to make it effective
Start by increasing your awareness of how much time you need to spend on self study and how you currently spend your time. The first place to look for more time is in time that is currently wasted
Plan your academic work and prioritise the most important tasks and activities
Some things you can try
Short time periods of 30 to 50 minutes can be very productive
Don’t confuse being busy with being effective
Consolidate your learning by using strategies for review and recall
Some things you can try
Create task and to do lists
Revisit these lists to keep them dynamic
Plan to complete ahead of deadlines to give yourself some wriggle room
Never underestimate the importance of leisure time
Developing skill in dealing with urgent tasks can be very useful but after a deadline is met, always reflect on how you could have better managed achieving the task
The pink boxes indicate strategies which, when used, can enhance a student’s time management, prioritising and planning. The blue clouds are only suggested responses, as students should be encouraged to think about their own learning experience. The information in the blue cloud can be used to prompt the student in their responses, if needed. 
Once the student has completed the structured template worksheet, they should be encouraged to return to reflect a second time. The idea is to re visit their initial reflection rather than to revise it. When the student has a better understanding of how to complete a journal entry in a reflective way, they can then use the second journal entry template which is unstructured. This has the same questions but allows free text responses by the student.
Other Relevant Resources – provided as feedback by colleagues
Occupation psychology and business studies disciplines suggested as a possible sources but no specific links. Google Calendar. Task Manager. Evernote. Leeds Beckett University. Toronto (Scarborough) University. RGU (Liam Waldron). Toodledo