[Music] hello today I'm going to be talking about planning organizing and prioritizing your work why these skills are so important and how to develop them let's say you know you have some exams in a few weeks time you need to revise for several subjects how do you go about it maybe you just open one of your books and start reading or maybe you just can't decide what to do first and spend a lot of time jumping from one thing to another or maybe you can't get started at all if any of this sounds like you you could benefit from developing your ability to plan organize and prioritize it may not sound very exciting but having good systems can actually save you a lot of time time that you could use to relax or see friends as well as getting your work done increasingly your teachers will expect you to be able to manage your own time they will set work but you need to decide when you are going to do it and how much time to spend on it if you can't do this effectively you will fall behind and your marks will suffer failing to plan is planning to fail some people habitually leave their work until the last minute and then stay up late or work all weekend to get it finished this can make life much more stressful than it needs to be and it isn't good for your health it's also important to learn to prioritize so that you spend the most time on the most important tasks for example a project worth 50% of the marks needs more time and attention than something worth 5% of the marks finally these skills are something which employers value highly they don't want the time they're paying for wasted or for projects to fail they will need you to be able to work independently and to manage your own time effectively you are likely to be asked to give examples of how you have achieved this in interviews for work or university maybe you're just not sure where all your time actually goes try keeping a diary for a few days to record how you are spending your time is there a good balance between work and leisure time are there any activities which are eating up too much of your time decide when would be the best times for you to study and stick to them next make a list of everything you have got to do if you are feeling anxious about your workload getting it down on paper can help you to feel more in control if you have some big tasks break them down into more manageable steps for example if you have to write an essay you could break it down into researching the topic writing an essay plan writing an introduction and so on then look at your list and decide on your priorities divide your tasks into the following four categories urgent and important you need to do these straightaway important but not urgent don't forget about these because they're not urgent plan when you will do them not urgent and not important do you really need to do these things at all don't try to do too many tasks on the same day this will just make you feel overwhelmed choose three or four tasks you can always do more if you have time try these tips and see how much good planning and organization can help good luck [Music]