Tips for time management

Hi all! I’m a second-year nursing student and student ambassador and I’ll be honest, I really struggled with time management at the start of my course. Between long shifts on placement, lectures, essays, exams, and ambassador work, I felt completely overwhelmed. :angry:

What helped me was learning to prioritise (easier said than done!). I started using a weekly planner (e.g., google calendar, iphone calender, Todoist and TickTick) to block out placement hours, deadlines, and even rest time (please don’t overwork yourself!!).

I also stopped trying to do everything at once. Nursing can be intense, so breaking tasks into small chunks made things feel way more manageable. Instead of thinking, “I need to write an essay,” I’d aim for just the intro or one paragraph for the day, this would force me to keep going the next day. :h:

If you’re a procrastinator, start your tasks (e.g., essays or revision) REALLY early on and at least write a couple sentences a day. This way you’ll be able to finish your task on time no matter how much you procrastinated, since you started earlier than everyone else.

Last, don’t suffer in silence. Student support services exist specifically to support you in times of need and crisis. They can also redirect you to time management services/support if you ask them. Practice to find your rhythm in time, you've got this! 💪

Can you share your tips for time management? :K:

(edited 3 months ago)

Reply 1

hallamstudents

Official Rep

Original post

by Kingston Sarah

What helped me was learning to prioritise (easier said than done!). I started using a weekly planner (e.g., google calendar, iphone calender, Todoist and TickTick) to block out placement hours, deadlines, and even rest time (please don’t overwork yourself!!).
I also stopped trying to do everything at once. Nursing can be intense, so breaking tasks into small chunks made things feel way more manageable. Instead of thinking, “I need to write an essay,” I’d aim for just the intro or one paragraph for the day, this would force me to keep going the next day. :h:

If you’re a procrastinator, start your tasks (e.g., essays or revision) REALLY early on and at least write a couple sentences a day. This way you’ll be able to finish your task on time no matter how much you procrastinated, since you started earlier than everyone else.
Last, don’t suffer in silence. Student support services exist specifically to support you in times of need and crisis. They can also redirect you to time management services/support if you ask them. Practice to find your rhythm in time, you've got this! 💪
Can you share your tips for time management? :K:

Hi Sarah!

I also have some tips for time management which I have acquired over the years so I thought I could share mine too!

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Make a calendar and write everything on it! Whether this is online, or written on paper, it is a good idea to show you what you have to do every week so you can get it all done. I like to fill it in at the start of the week with when I have uni, when I have work and what uni work I need to do so that I know I have time to complete all of my uni work, and I still have time to do fun things and see my friends!

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Make sure you spend the time you are working well. There is no point (for me anyway) to spend all day working as there will be a fairly big chunk of that time when I am not doing any work and I am just procrastinating. Instead, I like to spend an hour at a time actually focusing and then go and do something fun to take my mind off work! I know this gets harder the closer deadlines are, but it works for me.

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Try and start your work as soon as you can so that you have plenty of time to do it and it doesn't become rushed at the last minute. This way you have time during deadlines to see friends too or do some things you enjoy to make it feel more motivating.