Every project, be it for school or work, involves an element of time management. Being able to juggle work requirements, study, and home life can be quite difficult without a system. Below are some tips and tricks to make things a bit more manageable.
A final year project or dissertation is a huge undertaking. And anything that large can look too big to handle.
If you think about it though, there are different steps that need to be done to complete the project and you can tackle it one step at a time. In addition, each step can be broken down into smaller tasks.
Wasn't that last paragraph easier to read and understand in shorter, bullet-point steps? You see what we mean now...
It may seem basic, but having a calendar can really help you plan out your project. Think of the small milestones that you want to reach and give yourself a deadline. This is also a good place to keep track of your other responsibilities so that nothing gets neglected while you try to fit in time for research and writing.
Check out this video on LinkedIn Learning on how to make a Gantt chart to map out your project and manage your milestones.
A big project is bound to cause anxiety--and it can be tempting to put in long hours of work to get everything done on time. But your body and mind needs breaks to rest and recuperate. Psychologists theorise that we have incubation periods where we work through problems when we are not consciously thinking about them. Then when we come back to the problem we are working on, there in an "aha moment" where the solution appears to come out of nowhere.
The trick to doing this well is to do absolutely nothing during this break time. You can take a nap or maybe go for a walk, but you should not do anything too strenuous or engaging.
Sometimes even taking just a minute or two to clear our minds and reset can be very effective. Try some calming methods like breathing in and out with the gif to the right.
One of the most difficult hurdles when writing is beating procrastination. We normally procrastinate to avoid something we think is going to be too difficult or unpleasant. The Pomodoro method helps tackle this issue.
Pomodoro is a simple time-management method that gets you to alternate sessions of focused work with short breaks so that you can sustain concentration and avoid getting tired and frustrated.
The method has 5 steps:
