Change it Up with Short Sprints!
Today the focus is going to move from the tools of time management on to some elements of strategic time management: Short Sprints, and Change it Up!
Maybe one of your courses has an overwhelming volume of material to be covered–code books for a trades Red Seal designation, the human skeletal, muscular, and neuroanatomy structures, or thirty-two Shakespeare plays . . . . The volume of what needs to be remembered in detail in courses like these requires not only a LOT of bum-to-chair time, but strategic allocation of that time.
So what to do. First, come up with a realistic estimate of how much time you are going to need to learn the material. Be prepared to revise this estimate, but be pessimistic (not my favourite word, but it works here) and overestimate, to begin with.
Next, outline in your calendar the time you are going to spend to get the two-inch thick code book into your head. Say it’s four hours.
Here’s what NOT to do next: Do not mark off a four-hour session. Do not even mark off two two-hour sessions.
Instead,
- Spread the time out over the week. A 50 or 60 minute sprint every day or two, with a spot for reviewing the previous days’ work, is more effective (and less painful) than a four-hour marathon, where you don’t likely retain too much in the last hours anyway.
- Change it up!! After an hour on the code book or anatomy text, stretch, hydrate, and study something totally different–the video of the Shakespeare play, or an hour on your drafting exercises.
- Give yourself a small reward! And congratulate yourself!
There are many techniques for effective memorization and long-term retention, and I’ll be blogging on them later, but they all work better (and are more likely to be used) if they rest on Steve’s Mantra: Time Management is key!
Let me know how you work your large volume challenges [email protected]