It can be a challenge to manage your time when you come across a completely different style of assignment. You’re so used to planning and writing essays!

Read through my tips and tricks here on how to manage your time on this module:

  1. List. Everything.

I strongly believe that the best way to organise your time on Making History is to list every single task that the group needs to complete. Write out every reading, every virtual museum visit, every walk to a statue, and so on, that you can possibly think of.

This gives you a clear idea of everything you need to create the best possible project. It also makes it far easier to divide work as a group as well as manage your time.

The result is steady weekly progress as opposed to a last-minute panic because you have four days to get everything together before the deadline!

 

  1. Find relevant readings and skim them.

It can be easy to feel completely overwhelmed when you have a loaded reading list. It’s really important to find what is relevant to your work, and this is where skimming comes in.

This might be a bit of a scandalous admission for some, but I don’t always complete readings in full! I firmly believe that a History student’s best friend is the abstract/introduction and conclusion of an article or book chapter.

Is the reading actually relevant to your work? If you get the impression that it would be helpful, go through it and highlight parts that you could include in your work. If not, I would definitely advise skimming through to get the general gist of the piece as opposed to a detailed understanding.

Sometimes, readings may not seem directly relevant to your project, but they can still inspire you. For example, reading about material culture inspired my group to look for props for our final presentation. This led us to visiting the Museum of London to look at some scorched bricks that we could try to recreate, and we ended up getting some great comments about this.

 

  1. Share your workload.

It’s often not necessary for the entire group to carry out certain tasks. For example, if you need to organise a virtual museum visit to research some material culture, not everyone needs to be involved! Ask one or two group members to arrange a time to meet up on Zoom and explore the relevant exhibitions, so that they can summarise their findings for the rest of the group.

However, be wary of time management when taking on these tasks. Personally, I have a tendency to volunteer where it isn’t necessary. When I’m really enjoying a project, I take on loads of tasks, forgetting I have other modules too! This means I’m swamped with work, too embarrassed to ask for help, and the whole group is negatively affected. Please avoid this!

This is something I touch on more in the ‘Effective Teamwork for Making History’ blog, but it’s so important for everyone to have an equal workload. Don’t be embarrassed in letting your group know if you think you have more on your plate.

If necessary, ask someone if you can speed things up by sharing responsibility for a task. You could also try to group relevant tasks together, and volunteer for those, to reduce the amount of research you need to do.

 

  1. Block out time for no interruptions.

Again, this is applicable to all of your modules, not just Making History, but it’s especially relevant when you have deadlines coming up.

Decide on a particular time, perhaps an hour or two of the day, where the only thing you’ll be doing is a specific task. When living at home during corona time, I’ve been finding this difficult, but I find putting a ‘Working, please don’t enter!’ sign up on my bedroom door has worked a treat.

There are also lots of online tools to help you avoid distractions. I like the ‘Forest’ app (available on the App Store and Play Store) which lets you set a timer for how long you’re not allowed to touch your phone. It grows cute plants and trees which die if you open your phone before the time ends. Also helpful is the ‘Cold Turkey’ extension for Google Chrome, which blocks distracting websites, games and applications. You’ll fly through your tasks!

 

  1. Be on time.

I touch on this briefly in my ‘Effective Teamwork’ post, but the importance of being on time cannot be understated. Whether it’s for a group meeting or a weekly task deadline that you’ve set as a group, it is crucial that you try to stick to these times.

It may seem like no big deal to be 10 minutes late to a Zoom call with your group or to send in some research to the group a day late, but this time adds up and causes delays. It’s also inconsiderate to other members of your group and might cause resentment.

Of course, there is a global pandemic going on, so you might have legitimate reasons for not being able to be on time. This is perfectly okay! Try to plan ahead as far as possible and let your group know as soon as you can if you’re experiencing problems.