Tips for time management in polytechnic

"Hey, how do you even manage your time?" I've heard this question from my friends quite a few times. Hence, as a polytechnic student who has just survived Year 1, I would like to share some tips for time management for polytechnic students. You should also take a look if you're going to enter poly in April this year and unsure about how poly life is like, especially since poly life is really quite different from secondary school life.  It doesn't matter which course you're currently pursuing. Shall we start?

1. Start the assignment ASAP

As soon as you receive the assignment, try to start on it. Don't procrastinate! Avoid the last minute Buddha leg-hugging syndrome! 不要临时抱拂脚！(Avoid starting your project or assignment at the very last minute. It will be stressful and detrimental to your health if you continue doing it in the long term. )

In poly, it is mostly self-directed learning. Your lecturers aren't going to chase you to hand in the work. BUT if you hand it in late, you'll just get marks deducted.  Starting early on a task means you'll have lesser last minute work since you have already settled most during the earlier stages. This ensures you hand in better quality work as well. This tip is very helpful when you've many project deadlines in hell week(s) too.

2. Stay back after school after your lessons

In poly, the timings of your lessons are very flexible.  By this, it doesn't mean that the timings for the lessons change every week, but the lessons don't start at the same time every day. In secondary school, most of us must report to school at 7.25am for the morning assembly. However, in poly, some of your days may start and end early while some days may only have 1 lesson from 1pm to 3pm. Some of my friends from other courses even have a free day in their timetable. They do not need to attend school for one day every week. It depends on how your lecturers arrange their schedules.

Hence, you may end lessons earlier on some days. Make use of this and make it a habit to stay back to complete your homework. Study at wherever you're comfortable in, be it in the library or random benches around the campus. Studying in the same area makes it easier for you to integrate this into your life.  Having spoken to some friends, many find it difficult to concentrate at home and prefer completing their work in school instead.

Therefore, staying back for CCAs or additional lessons in the evening is another factor to compel you to stay back and do your homework!

3. Write your tasks and deadlines in a planner/ notebook/ smartphone

With so many assignments, projects and quizzes because there are at least 5 modules in one semester, it is important to stay organised. Write a to-do list either in your planner, notebook or smartphone to keep track of your deadlines. Prioritise the more urgent deadlines first and complete these first. Personally, I write my "To do" list in a small notebook. I prefer writing it down by pen-and-paper as it jots my memory and it is very shiok to cross the task out once I've completed it. Writing down the tasks to complete ensures you won't miss out or forget about any task or assignment, no matter how important or unimportant it is!

4. Don't skip lessons (unless you're sick)

Yes, 8am classes are so annoying and it's so hard to wake up early for most of us who are not early risers.  You may be thinking, " I can't even get up! What more go to class on time? I might as well sleep in. " If you are tempted to skip the lesson just for the sake of sleeping in, no! Please don't. Once or twice is okay if you really want to.

Why then?

Lessons can be either lectures or tutorials. Lectures are large scale and usually involve all the classes in a lecture theatre. The lecturer would be going through the slides and explaining the content in detail. They may also emphasize on pointers to take note during your exams.  Having filtered out unnecessary information, you can spend lesser time on revision and save time.

As for tutorials, it's important to attend lessons as they are more "hands-on". In other words, practical things.  If you miss the tutorial, you'll be lost when you need to use certain equipment. This leads to you wasting time on asking people and familiarising yourself with the stuff.

However, if you really have no choice but to be absent, beg  ask your friends to keep you in the know. Ask them politely to take pictures or send you their notes. Helping each other in times of need doesn't hurt right?

5. Set deadlines for tasks in your group projects

All poly courses have group projects and it is inevitable to work with all kinds of people. Some are slackers and lazier than others, while some are cooperative.

To make sure the entire group is on task and each member gets their stuff done, set deadlines for each task. For instance, finish the Google Docs by 5 March, finish the transcription by 7 March etc. Within the group, you can also allocate work to each member if that's more efficient. Then check if they have completed it by the deadline.

In cases where there are uncooperative members, be sure you use Google Docs and Google slides to check who has been contributing. This is solid evidence to prove that somebody has not been doing work. This may be troublesome but this is necessary for cases of peer evaluation.

6. Prep yourself with the right mindset

Unlike how people may comment that poly is a breeze, I believe that's not true. Poly may not be as demanding as JC but it can be stressful sometimes too. Every course has its pros and cons- things to like and things to dread. Some courses do not have many exams but there are more projects and assignments. Consistency is key and you've to stay on top of your time management game with so many things going within the same time frame. Whereas, some other courses may have more exams than projects, which means exam revision must start early to avoid cramming. You may also have external commitments such as being part of a CCA committee, Red Camp, Open House, CCA practices etc, which require you to stay back in school till about 11pm or even 12am.

Hence, an open mindset and positive frame of mind are important for you to survive especially through your hell weeks. You may lose sleep, you may be irritable, you may not want to talk to anybody. Tell yourself, it will eventually be over. Tell yourself,  grades are not everything. Tell yourself, just give it my best shot and it's okay. You will survive this tough period and carry on! You can do it!

With less time spent on complaining about the mountain load of work to handle and procrastinating because you don't want to do the work, you can save some time and this helps you to manage your time well. With this positive mindset, you'll also work more efficiently with a goal in mind and with the desire to give it your best effort.

With this, this wraps up some tips I have for time management in poly. Hope these time management tips will be useful to you. All the best for your poly life!