Learning through a virtual classroom can be difficult to complete if you do not know how to manage your time. The convenience of being able to learn anytime and anywhere is great but it can also make learning difficult to finish – especially if you are very busy.
Some people try to improve their knowledge and skills in the midst of their busy schedules. We all have to juggle our work load, household chores, and personal responsibilities. Inserting our online learning could be quite a challenge. But if you want to improve yourself and make daily tasks easier to complete, learning a new knowledge or skill should be given enough time despite your busy life.
Thankfully, all it really takes is proper time management in order to make things work for you despite everything that you have to accomplish. Squeezing in a couple of hours to complete a course and focusing on the virtual classroom without distractions is possible as long as you make the right preparations and plans.
Here are 10 tips to help you manage your time so you can complete your online course.
- Know the course schedule before you start. This is usually discussed in the overview of the course (e.g. 5 day course or 10 hour training program). Do not enroll in a course that you know you cannot squeeze in your timeline.
- Revise your schedule. The great thing about a virtual classroom is you can learn it anytime and anywhere. But there are lessons that you may have to access at specific moments. If you know the schedule of your course, make sure that you include it in your regular schedule. That way, you can determine if there are activities that you should accomplish earlier or later. This will help you meet your course requirements without compromising your other schedules.
- Inform your spouse, partner or family about your course schedule. This will help you clear that schedule so you can concentrate on your online learning. Maybe your loved ones can help cover your usual chores so you can focus on your studies. If you have kids, they can leave you alone for a couple of moments a day so you will not be disturbed by attending your virtual classroom.
- Determine the perfect time to do certain tasks. If the course can permit it, you can schedule tasks to complement your specific timeline. For instance, if you need to read certain texts or do your research, you can schedule them at night when the kids are all asleep. Or you can do it in the morning before you head for work – at least, if your day job starts quite late.
- Set rewards to motivate you. If you finish a phase in the course or an activity, feel free to reward yourself. This will not only make you feel good about your accomplishment, it will help motivate you to complete the next task.
- See if you can do things ahead. Again, this will depend on how flexible your online course will allow you in terms of completing tasks. If you have time to complete certain assignments or tasks this week, you may want to do them now instead of waiting. You will never know when you may have to cut back on your time because of an emergency. Not only that, doing things ahead could make you finish the course faster.
- Find the right place to study. This may not seem directly associated with time management but here’s the logic: you can finish your course faster and efficiently if you do it in the right place. Somewhere quiet or with the calming buzz in a coffee shop – it depends on where you can concentrate best.
- Close distractions. This refers to online distractions. Since you are studying through a virtual classroom, you need to be cautious of the distractions that you have online. For instance, you need to close your social media accounts so you will not be tempted to view them and this increase your study time more than it needs to. Open only what is necessary for you to complete your course requirements.
- Ask help when needed. This is great for activities that you do with a group. You can ask for help from groupmates so you can understand any part of the lesson that you are having trouble with. If you know that something is not your strength, ask help from someone so you can finish the task faster. If you cannot get in touch with fellow learners, the online instructor is there to help you out.
- Give yourself time to relax. Finally, you need to give yourself time to relax. Even if your virtual classroom is strict in following a schedule, you need to look at other activities that you can forego so you can spend time to relax. Do not burn yourself out trying to jam everything all at once. If you exhaust yourself, you won’t be able to absorb what you can from the course. So take some time off to enjoy despite your busy schedule. When you are refreshed, you can go back and continue studying.
A virtual classroom may seem impossible to complete because of your schedule but that does not mean it is impossible. You just have to manage your time very well.
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