Organisation and time-management are two of the most common resolutions set on December 31, however come mid-year, many people begin to let their hard work and rigid schedules slide. To help keep you organised and on track, here are 6 hot tips for mastering your time management and organisational skills:

WORK AT YOUR PEAK

When do you perform at your peak? Time management is all about making the best use of your time, so it makes sense to pinpoint when you work most productively. It could be early in the morning, late at night or even after an intensive workout. Whatever it may be, take note of when you perform at your peak and plan your work load accordingly – ensuring you make the best use of your time, all the time.

CARE FOR YOUR STUDY SPACE

Picture your study space right now – which words would you use to describe it? Neat? Methodical? Chaotic, perhaps? Your study environment can have a large impact on the way you work and if your space is a little haphazard, more than likely your thoughts will be too. For this reason, it’s important that you take the time to care for you space by keeping it clean, organised and fully stocked with any materials you might need. Eliminate any distractions and be prepared, avoiding the need to break concentration in search of different items. In turn, you can expect to experience an increase in productivity while eliminating stress and distractions.

APPS FOR ORGANISATION

With the help of app technology, staying on track and motivated with your work load is now quicker and simpler than ever. By compiling multiple functionalities into the form of an easy-to-use app, students and workers have the ability to schedule, prioritise, collaborate, retain and recover any work or documents, allowing you the freedom to work when and where you like! Here are our top 5 apps for organisation:

1. Things
2. Timeful
3. Asana
4. Awesome Note
5. Shoeboxed

REWARD YOURSELF

A great way to boost motivation and maintain a steady momentum is to set yourself smaller goals with mini-rewards along the way. When a certain task or behaviour is accompanied by a subsequent positive outcome, people are more likely to repeat those behaviours in the future. This is the psychological theory of positive reinforcement. You might decide to treat yourself with a coffee and cake break or a 10 minute social media binge. Whatever you’re doing, break it down into achievable chunks and reward yourself when they’re accomplished. Rewarding yourself for achieving little goals along the way can have a great impact on your motivation and willingness to push through to the end. And besides, who doesn’t love a little reward?

PRIORITISE YOUR TIME

Which assignment holds the most weight to your grade? Which has the most imminent deadline? Working out the tasks that need the most immediate attention can help to ensure you’re on track and ready to meet all deadlines. Although it might seem quite obvious, many people instinctively favour tasks that are smaller and more easily manageable, rather than completing by importance or urgency. However, this has the potential to leave you scrambling to get the more complex tasks completed on time. One of the simplest ways to accomplish prioritisation is to create a detailed to-do list, mapping out every task you need to tackle and by when.

SMART GOALS

How will you know what to aim for if you’re not sure where you’re headed? More importantly, how will you know when you get there? Setting measurable and achievable goals gives you a clear idea of what you’re working towards and where to focus your attention in order to be successful. When setting goals, using the SMART template can help to hone in on exactly what you’re trying to achieve and when might be a realistic time to get it done. To break it down, here is a quick look at SMART goals:

S – Specific: Define your goal in specific terms
M – Measurable: How will you measure success?
A – Achievable: The goal is achievable within the space, time, resources, etc that you have
R – Realistic: The goal is realistic and relevant to larger goals
T – Timely: The goal is given enough time to complete (but not so much that things are dragged out)