Semester Planning

Planners - paper and electronic

Being able to plan and prioritise your work are key skills for success. You may find that a number of important deadlines fall around the same time, so it’s important to plan ahead to avoid last-minute panic.

Use a monthly or yearly wall planner to see key deadlines at a glance, and plan your time by working back from those deadlines.

Flirt FM campus radio has a useful free wall planner (pick yours up in Áras na Mac Léinn) and there are plenty of free templates and planner apps available online as well. Don't forget to take note of public and university holidays - there's few things worse than showing up for classes on a holiday! 

To-do lists

To get a handle on your workload, write down everything you can think of that needs to be done (whether related to your study goals or not), how long you think each task will take, and the deadline for completing each task. Use or adapt our to-do list template if you find it helpful. Again, there are loads of free to-do list templates and apps available online.

Prioritising tasks

Once you have your list of ‘things to do’, how will you prioritise these tasks? One simple way is to assign the letter A to those tasks that are both urgent and important, letter B to those tasks that are either urgent but not important or important but not urgent, and letter C to the tasks that are neither urgent nor important. Now you have a good idea of which tasks need to be prioritised (that is, your A tasks).

Note that the status of particular tasks may change over time. So what was a B task last week might become an A task this week, and so on. You might find it helpful to complete this simple planning and prioritising exercise on a weekly basis, but with an eye to key deadlines over the next number of weeks. 

Task analysis

Task analysis involves breaking a task down into its constituent parts. Most tasks require you to complete a series of steps or sub-tasks. Breaking tasks down in this way can help to make a seemingly overwhelming task more manageable. Use our guide to task analysis (see below) if you’d like to have a go at developing this skill.

Support

If you feel that your workload is becoming unmanageable, and this is causing you distress, ask for help.

Contact your Student Support Officer or your lecturers, academic advisors, or tutors. See our email templates in the Communication Skills section of the Academic Skills Hub if you're not sure how to phrase an email to academic staff.

Drop in to the Student Enquiry Centre, have a word with your CÉIM leader, try the Library’s Academic Skills Service, register with Student Counselling, or arrange to talk with one of our Chaplains.

Feeling that your workload is getting on top of you can be a signal that you need to work on improving your organisational skills. Remember that these skills, like all skills, will improve with time and with practice.