STAY AHEAD
AUTUMN PROGRAMME 2011
Organisational skills
Sara Steinke
Aims of the session
• Identify key organisation skills to help you
study more efficiently and effectively
• Think about time management
• Consider how to prioritise tasks
• How to establish a study time table
• Reflect upon your present strengths in
organising your studies, the areas for
improvement that you are hoping for and the
strategies that work best for you
Think about the following
• Have you created a
dedicated study space?
• Is the space
comfortable / enough
for you to work in?
• Do you have all the
equipment you need
close at hand?
• Have you thought about
how you are going to
organise your notes /
books?
• Why is time management
important to your
studies?
• Have you identified the
pressures on your time?
• Have you thought about
how you are going to fit in
studying with your work
and family commitments?
• If so, what ideas have you
had?
• Have you drawn up a
study timetable?
• C - Creative
have the confidence to use your individual strategies and
styles, apply imagination to your learning
• R - Reflective
sit with your experience, analyse and evaluate your own
performance and draw lessons from it
• E - Effective
organise your space, time, priorities, state of mind
and resources to the maximum benefit
• A - Active
be personally involved, do things, physically and mentally in
order to make sense of what you learn
• M - Motivated
be aware of your desired outcomes using short and long-term
'goals'
Studying
socialising
lectures,
reading,
writing
sleeping/
travel
eating
exercise/
work
relaxation
home/
personnel
Yes
How well do I use my time?
1. I use small pockets of time effectively.
2. I am well motivated to start work
quickly.
3. I do enough rather than aiming at
perfection.
4. I say ‘NO’ when I lack time.
5. I use a diary to prioritise my
activities.
No
1. Small pockets of time – around 45 minutes – are more
productive. Short and frequent portions of time soon add
up.
2. Recognise and deal with procrastination; set short, medium
and long term goals; identify your time wasters (self-inflicted
and given)
3. Pareto Principle – 20% of our efforts deliver 80% of our
results; 20% effort delivers an acceptable result, not perfect,
but good enough
4. L’Oreal principal – ‘because you’re worth it’; educate your
family, friends and colleagues to respect your study
space/time
5. Use one diary to create a ‘to-do list’; prioritise tasks; note
deadlines; write down dates you must begin working
towards the deadlines.
Prioritising tasks
Goals
• Have you thought about
your:
a) education / academic
b) professional / work
c) personal goals?
• Have you broken your
goals down into:
a) short (this year)
b) medium (next year)
c) long (3 years) goals?
Reflective learning
1. Write down the three most important
things that you have learnt / thought about in
this session? Why were they important to
you?
2. Are there any areas of improvement that
you need to take action on? If so, what are
you doing to do to improve this aspect
of your learning?
3. How are you going to use these skills to
establish a study time table?
Recap of the session
• Identified key organisation skills to help you
study more efficiently and effectively
• Thought about time management
• Considered how to prioritise tasks
• Established a study time table
• Reflected upon your present strengths in
organising your studies, the areas for
improvement that you are hoping for and the
strategies that work best for you
Cottrell, S. (2008) The
Study Skills Handbook, 3rd
Edition (London, Palgrave)
chapter 4 ‘The C.R.E.A.M.
Strategy for learning’
pp.70-79
http://www.palgrave.com/
skills4study/studyskills/
learning/time.asp
(relevant tips and activity
related to the above book)
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/
mybirkbeck/services/facilities
/support/time-management
(online resources available
on the Birkbeck Library
website)
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/
mybirkbeck/get-ahead-stayahead/skills/organisationalskills
(a 20 minute interactive tutorial
supporting this Get Ahead
Summer programme)