Time Management When Taking Online Courses

In this age of digital education, learning new skills is right at your doorstep. You no longer need to travel long distances to school to get certain training. One can be in Tel Aviv and take courses delivered in Berlin just from the comfort of your laptop. All you need is a laptop, steady internet and your supercharged zeal to learn. Learning when the course is self-directed could be overwhelming and many a time challenging because you will spend more time searching for answers to grey areas in your course because the instructor is not there to provide the immediate answers needed. How you manage your time will also determine how fast you would finish the course. We are just going to focus on time management in this article and leave other challenges for the next discussion. 

Tips for Effective Time Management

Time is the most valuable asset you don’t own. You may or may not realize it yet, but how you use or don’t use your time is going to be the best indication of where your future is going to take you. ~ Mark Cuban

• Set clear goals

Each time I sign up for a new course on Udemy, one of the first set of questions I get after payment is; Why are you taking this course? With the following suggested answers; To learn a new skill, start a business with the skills you’ll learn, enhance already gained skills, improve performance at work, others.

Only you know why you picked up your card to pay for an online course and why you signed up for that free course. So, whatever encouraged you to learn that skill should be stated clearly. Write it down. Paste it where you would see it often enough to finish the course and complete your goal. Give yourself a target time to complete the course. 

•  Choose your study time

If you have a full-time job or business that takes up most of your time during the day, studying during the day might be a little daunting for you. Do the first things first. Set your study time. Are you a night owl or early bird? You know what time works best for you.

When I started taking online courses, I had a very strenuous full-time job and felt so tired after work but I still needed to study so I committed one hour every night before going to bed during the week. On weekends, I studied early mornings between 5 am and 8 am before my kids wake up. Studying in the mornings helped me to check off one of the top tasks on my list for the day. That way, I won’t feel stressed with other tasks knowing that I had studied. One may not have a comfortable time to study especially if you are a parent or tied down other daily activities.

• Plan ahead

Now that you’ve clearly defined your study time, planning is another key step. Keep a journal of what you’ve learned and the modules or topic you plan to cover in your next study time. When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

• Track your learning

1. Get a calendar.
2. Hang it on a very visible part of your home.
3. Mark the days, you study on the calendar.

After studying, write the time you spent under the day on your calendar. This will help you take note of how long you put in. If you plan to complete the course in three months and within one month you notice haven’t completed up to one-third of your course, your time sheet or calendar will guide you to know how much more time you need to add to your study.

• Remove distractions

Your phone and television are your enemies when you are a taking a self-directed course. Since your TV has been infused into your phone, then your phone is your worst enemy. Yes.

Whenever you want to study, stay away from your television. Keep your phone away from you. You know this rabbit hole called the internet? Sometimes, we let it suck us up and waste our precious time we would have used to perform our scheduled activities. If you study in your room, keep your phone in the kitchen. If you are studying in the library or where you can’t afford to keep your phone away from you, the best thing is to switch off your phone or put it in flight mode. You might be tempted to make or answer long calls even if you turn off your wifi. So, my main argument is to keep your phone away as possible as you can.

• Avoid “Course Shopping” Syndrome

I had this problem of signing up for many courses at once. I ended up having so many courses at different levels of completion. It slowed me down because today, I’m learning javascript, the next day I’m learning python, next selenium. This was a big mistake for me. I just had to stop and complete the ones I had before getting more courses. I had the hunger to know more but having them all at once is just too much. My sincere suggestion is to get one course, finish it before putting another course in your shopping cart. It can be too overwhelming to catch up with every free and cheap course online. It’s understandable that Coursera, edX, and Khan Academy have made college-level courses free. The abundance of courses on these free platforms does not mean you have to do them all at ones. One course at a time is the magic to learning faster and better.

• Take care of yourself

Self-directed studies can be so lonely. It is very important that you make out time to create a good headspace for yourself. Remember, a tired mind can’t assimilate much. Frustration may kick in. Don’t let that happen.

• Get enough sleep.
• Exercise regularly – You might say you have no time to go to the gym. You can just do 15 minutes run around your house or work out at home. Nike Training Club app and many other home workout apps can help you with an exercise routine.
• Go have fun with friends once in a while.

What are the challenges you’ve experienced with self-directed learning aka online courses?

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