Prioritizing Work for a First Class Degree
Correctly prioritizing work for your university degree allows you to
- Save time when working on degree assignments
- Meet all university assignment deadlines
- When prioritizing work for your degree, consider
When does it need to be done?
- Do I have the skills / knowledge to complete this task
- When will I gain new skills / knowledge for this task
Usually it is best to prioritize university assignments by deadline, however this does not always make best use of your time.
For every hour you work, consider right now, am I making the best use of my time
For example, if you have two university assignments with different deadlines, it may make sense to start the assignment due to be handed in later, if you are currently in a better position to work on this degree assignment than the one due in earlier.
This can be dangerous, do not:
- Cut degree assignment deadlines to fine
- Use this as an excuse to avoid difficult tasks at university
Make sure you do:
- Briefly plan what you need to do to get up to speed on the university degree module required earlier
- Act on that plan
As soon as you are able, revert to working on the degree assignment due in earlier
Being able to do this depends on the requirements identified in the post on planning your university degree work, i.e. at all times knowing:
- Where you are in terms of skills / knowledge required to complete degree assignment
- What tasks have to be completed for your university degree
- How long you think it will take to complete each task at university
- How much time you have left on each task for your degree
The advantage of prioritizing in this way is that you do not waste a disproportionate amount of time working on problems which you could ask a university tutor for support with.
Prioritizing in this way is another reason why you should work ahead on your degree course as you can identify areas where you need support in time to get that support from university staff, or other degree students.
Getting stuck on a problem the day before a university assignment is due leaves you few options.
This way of working is not appropriate for everyone, it depends on how easily you are able to switch tasks, and how quickly you are able to get into the flow with a piece of university degree work.
