Academic Skills For Success

Time management covers a group of skills and techniques that help us stay organized, and accomplish tasks in an order that considers how important these tasks are to us and when they need to be accomplished by. To do this, we need to include skills related to staying focused and efficiently using time we have set aside for certain tasks like homework and studying.

Life can have many demands for our attention that can pull us in different directions. School, work, friends and family all deserve our time and respect and it can sometimes feel like there is not enough time for all of them. Here are two tools for organization and efficiency to help you get started.

Please come see us in the Learner Centre or online if you have any questions or if you need other resources.

Named after a tomato shaped kitchen timer popular in Italy, the Pomodoro technique is a method of setting study times where you focus, followed by breaks to relax and let your brain catch up.

Working with the natural rhythm of your attention span has been shown to greatly increase how effectively you learn. If you get distracted while studying, this can sometimes be because your brain needs a small break to "digest" the information you have been learning. The Pomodoro technique uses this understanding of how our brain works by balancing short, focused periods of study with small breaks that allow our brain to catch back up so it can prepare to refocus.

An assignment calculator is a tool that can help you plan tasks such as writing assignments or preparing for an exam. The online assignment calculator will break down your task into manageable steps. Simply enter the due date of your exam or an assignment to generate a suggested breakdown of your task, with separate due dates for each of the subtask.