The end of the semester is approaching, exams and more exams are approaching and you don't know where to start studying? Don't worry, there are more people in the same boat, so let's share some prioritization tips so that nothing passes your study radar from now on! 

Before talking about any technique or maneuver to optimize your priorities, we come across a crucial point: time. After all, who never here wished the day had a few more hours?! But stay tuned, these tips were designed to optimize your time and increase your quality of life, not to work more 😉

To get started: organize your tasks

Before you get lost in a world of books or computer tabs without knowing where to start, write down everything you need to do. This way you will have a list of what needs to be done and can use it as a checklist.

It is also important to divide the tasks in order of deadline, so you can manage the production and study time for each one without letting anything delay! In short, you will put together a kind of shopping list, but instead of products from the market you will have to follow your studies using it 🤓

How important is it to set deadlines?

Here you need to keep your delivery dates in mind, but not as a way to become anxious or rush to finish everything as soon as possible. Having defined deadlines will help you organize your tasks and studies, so in the end you will be able to calculate how much time on average is needed to complete each of them.

Pomodoro Technique

In 1980 Francesco Cirillo developed this time management and optimization technique. But how does it work? It's simple, the proposal consists of a working day divided into breaks.

Bringing the numbers to the table looks like this: 25 minutes of studying and/or work followed by a five-minute break. At the end of four blocks of work and break comes a slightly longer rest period: 15 to 30 minutes of rest. 

PIF Matrix

Remember what we said about prioritizing your tasks? This is the perfect tool to help you, because it combines three criteria to choose which would be the most important on your list:

• Potential: What is the probability of this action being successful?
• Impact: How much does this action affect your to-do list?
• Ease: how much time and work will this task require?

This matrix can be used for various decision making, even what your lunch will be for the day! To do this, you need to list each of these criteria in levels of importance for your checklist. The prioritization of each task will be measured by points on a scale that you define, which can be from 1 to 5 points, for example. 

Still a little confused? Don’t worry, here’s a step-by-step guide for you: 

Set a goal:

Here's the time to set a goal for the day: do you want to get ahead on tasks? Want to catch up on them? This is the time to define what will be the guide of your prioritization filters.

List the options:

This is the time to list all the tasks you need to accomplish to reach the goal you set and fulfill your ultimate objective.

Score the options:

Here comes the score according to the potential, impact and ease of the tasks. Put on paper which options will or will not be worth it. 

Think about possible interference:

Pay attention to any interference you may have during each task.

Analyze scores:

Finally, analyze the scores again taking into account interferences and variables.

Now you're ready to organize your tasks and make the most of your free time without missing any deadlines! Tell us, what will be your starting point for an optimized routine?