Time management is an art form that only a few students fully master, as is evident with the rest complaining about not having enough hours in the day to do what they need to do. However, 24 hours is certainly plenty of time. So, where does all that time go, and how can you better manage your time to be as productive as possible?
The secret to attaining this improved productivity lies in your dead time, allowing you to free up more time in your daily life. Or rather, make better use of the time that otherwise ends up wasted.
Understanding Dead Time
Dead time is when an individual is not acting as productively as desired. It could be the time you spend waiting for something, like at a bus stop or doing an activity that serves no real purpose.
Dead Time Is All Around Us
Dead time takes place more than you might think. It exists on your journey to school. It is those five-minute breaks between lessons. Even the time it takes for your computer to boot up can count as dead time. Although they seem insignificant individually, they all add to the bigger picture. Estimates suggest that the average person has over one and a half hours of dead time per day. Therefore, if you can get into the habit of finding ways to make better use of this dead time, such as taking care of the smaller parts of a larger task, you can effectively turn those wasted moments and do something meaningful with them.
Here are a few instances where dead time tends to hide and suggestions on how to better make use of it:
1. On your way to school
There is plenty of dead time when commuting to school, so it is best to do something else than just waiting for you to reach your destination. For instance, you could practice your chosen language subjects with language apps like Duolingo or other resources you have on your phone. You could also work on your flashcard sets on Anki or Memrise to make some progress on your exam revisions. If you are in the mood for something more passive, listen to podcasts on your language subject instead and improve your listening skills.
2. Waiting for anything in particular
Bring a small revision guide — like your IGCSE maths revision, for example — or any other notes with you wherever you go. Then, whenever you find yourself waiting for something, make some progress on your review instead of being unproductive with your phone. Having a highlighter handy is also recommended for remembering key ideas on the spot.
Conclusion
When it comes to tackling the IGCSE, time management is of utmost importance. Given how demanding it can be, students must strive to make the most of the time they have in the day to make every bit of progress to stay on top of their studies. Now that you know more about dead time and how it proliferates throughout your daily schedule, you should now have a good idea of how to take back your time and put it to good use.
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