Instructions on time management with the help of a timeline  

 

  1. Take out an empty sheet of paper (one A3-size sheet or several A4-size sheets), place them horizontally and draw as many horizontal lines across the paper as you have courses in the teaching period. Add a box/bullet at the start of each line, where you write ‘Start’ and do a similar one to the other ends of each line and write ‘End/Finished’.  
  • Set a personal goal for each course and write it next to the ‘End’ boxes.   
  • Divide each line into seven parts (as one period lasts seven weeks).  

  1. Next, think about the stages that passing the course successfully will require. What milestones and subtasks does the project involve (submitting assignments, reading an exam book, studying the lecture slides)?  

  • Place the deadlines, exam dates and other key dates on top of the timeline.  
  • What is the first thing you should do to further the personal goal you set for the course? Write that at the start of your line.  
  • Then write all the rest of the stages needed to pass the course in their order of completion on the line.   
  • Try to estimate the duration of each stage and distribute the stages evenly over the duration of the course.   

  1. Finally, look at the overall workload: are there subtasks of several courses concentrated on the same weeks? Could you start some stages earlier or later to even out the workload between the different weeks?  

  1. Follow your plan and estimate your progress with the help of your timeline.