Planning and organising your time
When studying at university, it is important to be aware that you will need to manage how you spend most of your study time. This may be different from your prior learning experiences, where you may have been advised on, or received a timetable, for your study time.
Managing your time as an independent learner
Although the University will provide you with a timetable outlining your scheduled sessions, you will be expected to study outside of these hours. Central to this is the expectation that as a student you will be an ‘independent learner’.
This means taking the responsibility to make decisions about what you will focus on and how much time you will spend on each task. It does not mean learning on your own, and there are various ways you will benefit from learning with others both formally (for example, working on group assignments) and informally (for example, forming study groups).
Therefore, to be an effective independent learner at university you will need to develop good planning and organisation strategies.
How to plan and organise your study time at university
While your academic timetable will show your weekly lectures and seminars, you will be expected to manage other course expectations, such as:
- Pre-reading and preparation, including watching recorded materials before sessions
- Reviewing notes after sessions (see our guide to active note-making strategies)
- Planning and completing assessments
- Organising and sustaining group projects
- Revising for examinations and tests.
Your course and module handbooks will provide you with exact expectations for assignment submission dates, exam periods and the types of projects you will undertake. By knowing the requirements for each module, you can start to plan and organise your study, allocating and splitting your independent study time between each module.
When planning and organising your time it’s important to maintain a focus on:
- The long-term requirements: Such as knowing assessment deadlines
- The immediate requirements: Such as weekly commitments and schedules
- A process for maintaining and reviewing your calendar or weekly schedule.
Note: You probably already use some good strategies to plan and organise your time, so consider what has worked well and not so well for you in the past. Have the confidence to apply and adapt any previous strategies that have worked well for you.
Life at university is not all about study
Remember to also schedule other aspect of university life such as managing independent living, social activities and looking after yourself. You may have been doing some (or even all) of these already, but at university you will need to balance life alongside your simultaneous module commitments, all of which will require independent study time beyond the taught, timetabled aspects.
You will need to balance some or all of the following:
Independent study
- Reading for all modules
- Managing multiple assignments
- Working with peers.
Independent living
- Cooking
- Grocery shopping
- Laundry
- Cleaning.
Life commitments
- Paid work
- Caring commitments.
Health and wellbeing
- Exercising
- Socialising
- Societies
- Downtime.
Key takeaways
Before starting university:
- Reflect on how you currently plan and organise your time: What works and is there anything you can improve?How you might adapt some of these approaches to the requirements of university study.
When you start university:
- Review your personal university timetable, where you’ll also be able to, if you wish, set up a timetable ‘feed’ to automatically populate your electronic calendar
- Be mindful that tasks often take longer than expected, so try sticking to your plan, but always build in contingency time.
What next?
Planning and organising your time well involves scheduling opportunities to keep and maintain excellent notes. On the importance of good note-making at university, see the active note-making strategies guide.
