Time management is key for fulfilling your potential at LSE. Almost all LSE courses involve a great deal of independent study and this means you will need to think about how best to organise and balance your time. Doing well in your studies obviously requires a lot of hard work but you will need to fit in other important tasks like eating, sleeping and seeing your friends!
Here are some top tips:
Make a list of tasks that need to be done that week and the weeks ahead.
Start planning. Use a diary or schedule to allocate a realistic amount of time to each task. Think about which tasks require a lot of time and which can be done in smaller chunks between other jobs.
Think about places that you can work with minimal fuss and distraction and maximise concentration. It helps to have a back-up space that you can escape to, like departmental study spaces or even a coffee shop where you can get on quietly.
If your schedule doesn’t work, don’t give up on scheduling! Change things around. Change where you are working. Or try working on one of your smaller more manageable tasks.
Think about strategies that make getting started with work easier. Quite often, getting stuck in to your work and avoiding procrastination is the hardest part.
Don’t push yourself too hard. Think about what is realistic and achievable. If you set unrealistic goals, you will likely disappoint yourself.
Find strategies to help with the times you know you will struggle to concentrate and make a note of material that you may need to return to with fresher eyes.
Keeping ahead of the game is the best way of keeping on top of things. Being prepared is actually a lot easier (and less stressful) than catching up tends to be. Your work will also benefit hugely by keeping on the front foot. This will be the case with any of the disciplines taught at LSE but will be especially important when dealing with quantitative topics – see our Honing your quantitative skills [link] section for more on this.
Further resources
Effective reading strategies| – advice from Dr Claudine Provencher and Maria Bell from LSE’s Teaching and Learning Centre and Library (PPT)
The science of procrastination and how to manage it| – an animation on the brainpickings.org site