It is time to stop doing what is not working and get a new game plan to submit assignments within your study period.
The day that you decided to enrol for a course, you undertook a major project and therefore I think it is only fitting to use sound business principles in the planning and management of this major project in your life. To help you manage your time more effectively and avoid becoming distressed and overwhelmed, we took a closer look at one of the short courses offered by BMT College, namely Team Supervisor. During this course students learn six easy steps on how to manage projects and supervise team members. These six easy steps consist of the following:
1.The very first step of planning is forecasting.During this process you will visualise the conditions under which you will have to complete your assignments.For example, will you be relocating, taking over a new position, have a baby, get married or train for a fitness event such as the Two Oceans marathon? Taking into account what lies ahead of you for the duration of your study period will allow you to do better and more realistic planning. Remember that you can never be 100% sure of what will happen in the future and therefore your planning has to allow for some flexibility.
2.In the second step of planning you need to establish your goals or objectives. You need to be specific by stating what it is that you want to complete and by when you want to complete it. For example, you may decide that you want to complete all assignments for the Team Supervisor short course by 1 October 2015. Write your goals down and place it somewhere where you can see it and constantly be reminded of it.
3.Once you have set your objective/s and you know what you want to achieve and by when you want to achieve it, you need to establish the sequence and the action steps that you will follow to achieve your goals. This step is referred to as programming.Write down the action steps that you will take in order to reach your goal/s. For example:
- Complete and submit registration documents
- Download study material or collect it from the post office
- Work through prescribed study material and study all lessons
- Complete formative assignment and submit it for marking
- Complete summative assignment and submit it for marking
4.Put together a budget of the available resources that you have (it can be a time budget in this example) and how you will use it in the best possible way. For example, you may have twenty hours available per week to dedicate to your studies.
5.Set up a schedule for when you will complete each step and establish the time duration for each step. For example:
Action Step 1: Complete and submit registration documents by 12 June 2015 (deadline date) and you estimate that this step will take you 1 hour (the time budget).
Action Step 2: Download study material or collect it from the post office by 26 June 2015 and you estimate that this step will take you 1 hour.
Action Step 3: Work through the prescribed study material before 15 August 2015. This step will take you roughly 70 hours.
Action Step 4: Complete the formative assignment and submit it for marking by 22 August 2015; this may take about 20 hours.
Action Step 5: Complete the summative assignment and submit it for marking by 1 October 2015. This step will take about 30 hours.
6.In the final step, go through your entire plan to ensure that you have included all relevant aspects in your plan of action to reach your study goals and add final steps if needed.
Remember that time is money and study extensions can work out to be very costly if you did not plan for it.Managing your time to submit assignments on time can be challenging but ultimately you are in control of the clock and of your studies; you are your own supervisor.
If you enjoyed this blog article and would like to know more about our Team Supervisor Course, follow this link: http://www.businesscollege.co.za/CollegeCoursesCertificateTeamSupervisor.html.
Article by Zoe Auths