Drafting a (rough) plan for a semester is much more difficult than drafting a week plan. It is needed, however, for at least two reasons:
• it prevents an accumulation of activities at the wrong time, which can lessen the time available for important courses and other activities;
• it enables you to include feedback sessions at the right times, and to adjust your priorities.
Identify your portfolio of major activities
• 1.1 List all of the courses that you plan to attend in the semester. Try to find out at the beginning of the semester what the requirements for each course look like: reading requirements (literature: number of pages), exam dates and contents (multiple-choice, open book), writing requirements (case/essay), other requirements. See the example on the next page. Try to assign a priority ranking to the courses on the basis of two criteria: (1) your own interests in this semester, (2) your interests in the next semester which might prompt you to do a preparatory course this semester. Take into account, in your priority ranking, the consequences on financing your education and the other external requirements that you have to keep track of.
• 1.2 List the extra activities (if desirable), in particular self-study groups and major extra curricular activities (for example, student assistant job or organisation of a study trip) (B1). Try to ascertain what their impact could be on your time management and the kind of feedback that you would like to create time for.
• 1.3 Always add a list of your personal activities that you already know will probably have a major impact on your planning: holidays, big celebrations.
Identify your most important ‘time wasters’
Bad time management occurs when you cannot handle a number of ‘time wasters’. Time wasters are related and are often cumulative. Identification should create the precondition under which you can work on tackling your time wasters in the most effective way possible. The box helps you to identify your main ‘time wasters’.
