Nursing education has transformed over the years, with online learning platforms gaining popularity. This change can be explained by the need for flexibility and accessibility in learning, alongside a growing demand for skilled healthcare professionals. However, managing the virtual classroom requires students to have more than just technical proficiency; they also need effective time management skills. Online nursing education can only be a success if students practice self-discipline and organization. This article looks at ways to master time management, including creating structured study schedules, setting realistic goals, learning to prioritize and making good use of productivity tools.
Understanding the challenges of online nursing education
Online nursing courses are not without their challenges, but neither are in-person courses. Students who choose online education benefit from the flexibility it provides, enabling them to continue working and looking after a family, or just not being confined by a rigid timetable and traveling to classes. To benefit from this flexibility and still achieve good results from your learning, it is important to become self-disciplined, balancing the freedom of an online nursing education with responsible planning. This forward-thinking approach helps students to stay on track.
Setting and sticking to study sessions shows how much time you have for learning and whether this is achievable. To make the most of this time, it’s important to remove potential distractions and things that needlessly waste time. For example, finding somewhere to learn where you won’t be disrupted can be a challenge if you are also looking after a family. You may need to study before the rest of the family gets home from school and work, or in your lunch break if you have access to a quiet space. If you have a local library, this might be somewhere you can spend time learning. Alternatively, you might find time early in the morning or in the late evening. Learning in an effective environment can help to reduce wasting time in ways like sitting in front of the television without actively watching something or scrolling through social media and checking emails.
If you spend a lot of time doing any of these things, it could be helpful to cut down and focus that time on learning instead. If you set specific times of the day for checking emails you can make people aware that you won’t reply to non-urgent messages outside of those hours. You can also limit social media use and television viewing. Of course, it’s important to switch off and relax occasionally, but spending hours on a combination of these things can be time-draining.
It’s also important to stay motivated and focused throughout the online nursing program. Motivation will help you stick to set study sessions and complete your qualification. Tutors can help with focus, while communicating with other students will help with discovering shared challenges and overcoming them. Some of the best ABSN programs with online learning, such as the accelerated BSN through Wilkes University, understand these requirements and are constantly evolving and growing to meet the needs of their online student nurses. Wilkes also provides ample mentoring support and complimentary placement services to help its students succeed in their chosen path.
Motivators can be both big and small, from rewarding yourself for completing a piece of coursework, to working towards higher job security in your career, and the improved salary that your qualification can help you achieve.
Creating a structured study schedule
Creating a study schedule is about more than just setting time aside. If you want to create a schedule you have more chance of following, assessing personal commitments and obligations will help. There are some things you can cut down on or ask someone else to help with, and other things you may not want to reduce.
For example, you might have young children. You could arrange for your partner or family member to be around for an hour or two to look after them while you study. Alternatively, this might be the only quality time you spend with them and you would prefer to look at reducing other responsibilities.
These could include cutting back on working hours and looking at ways to make financial cutbacks while you learn. Knowing this is only temporary is helpful, and freeing up this time will help you stay on track and improve your chances of successfully gaining your qualification.
It is also important to be aware of the method of study that works for you. Some people can easily dip in and out of learning with 10-minute or 15-minute ad hoc study sessions in between other responsibilities. This can be useful for building up your learning throughout the day without setting aside larger chunks of time. However, other students might benefit from longer, but less frequent, studying sessions. They may find they become more productive after getting into the momentum of studying. While this means they have to set aside a block of time each day or most days, it also means the rest of their day is free to focus on other responsibilities. If you don’t know which method works best for you, try both and settle on the most effective technique.
To create a consistent routine, consider when you are most productive. Although studying will be less distracting when you are somewhere quiet, this is only part of creating a schedule. For example, if you’re choosing between early morning or evening, you might be more alert after a good night’s sleep and take in more knowledge in the same amount of time, before getting on with the rest of your day. Other students might find they are not alert first thing in the morning and evening study might be best for them.
Regular breaks are an important part of study time and so is leisure time if you want to prevent burnout. Maintain clear boundaries during scheduled sessions, then make sure to plan your leisure time and time with loved ones. This can include spending the day at the beach with your family, meeting a friend to catch up over coffee, or simple acts like saying no to non-urgent requests and taking time to look after yourself.
Setting realistic goals
Setting realistic goals can help you to stay on track. It might seem like a good idea to study more course material than planned in your allotted time, but you don’t want to rush through your coursework. Taking advantage of the time allowed for your studies will help you complete it with fewer mistakes.
Start setting realistic targets by defining short-term and long-term goals. Short-term goals might include completing assignments on time and progressing through the program, or they may be even smaller, such as 10 minutes of study when you don’t feel like it. This can be followed by another 10 minutes, and so on, until you no longer feel like you’re clock-watching. Longer-term goals would be completing the course, graduating and getting the career you want. On days when these seem too daunting, it’s better to take one step at a time and focus on the smaller steps.
Your short-term and long-term goals may differ from these examples. However, you can use the SMART criteria – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound – to set your own goals. Be specific with your goals, detailing what you want to achieve. Instead of setting a vague goal like improving your grades, you might specify a minimum grade you want to achieve, then you can set smaller steps to work towards this goal. You can make your goal measurable by setting criteria to track progress. One smaller goal, for example, could be to study for a specific number of hours per week.
To be realistic and attainable, goals should fit with your current circumstances, resources and capabilities. Factors such as your workload, time constraints and personal obligations should all be considered to avoid setting yourself up for failure. Try not to compare yourself to other students with different circumstances as this is not a fair comparison and may discourage you.
Aligning your goals with your overall aims and priorities in online nursing education will ensure they are relevant. If you ask yourself whether each goal is meaningful and relevant to your academic and professional aspirations, you will be able to set goals and focus on the things that help you learn and advance in your career.
Lastly, setting deadlines or even rough timeframes for achieving your goals creates accountability.
Most people struggle sometimes, even after lots of planning. So, remember to take advantage of resources available to you such as online study materials, academic support services and other students. This is the best way to learn and stay motivated.
Using time management tools and resources
Staying organized and on top of deadlines is essential, and there is a wide choice of digital calendars and scheduling apps available to help you make the most of your time.
Google Calendar is one example of a user-friendly tool. It works well with other Google services. You can create multiple calendars, color-code events and set reminders. These features help you avoid missing important deadlines or online tutorials where you get the opportunity to ask questions and get instant answers. Using this tool to remind you of goals and tasks can be a great way to remind yourself.
Trello can be used to organize your projects and tasks using boards, lists and cards. You could create boards for each course or project, and use cards to represent individual tasks or assignments. This is also useful when working on projects with other students. Trello’s drag-and-drop feature makes it easy to move tasks to sections such as in-progress and completed, and users can mark individual tasks as done.
Microsoft To Do is a task management app that works across multiple devices and integrates with other Microsoft services like Outlook and Microsoft Teams. Students can use this app to create task lists for their course or an individual assignment, set reminders and work with others. Features such as file attachments and subtasks are great for breaking down larger assignments into manageable steps.
Of course, these are just a few of the tools students can use to manage time and keep track of everything. There are many digital calendars and task management apps to explore. The one you opt for depends on what you want help with in terms of time management. Apps like RescueTime and Toggl can be useful for tracking how long you spend online, highlighting any time-wasting tasks and improving your efficiency by focusing on high-priority tasks. If you try several different tools, you can see which ones are best for you.
Overcoming common time management pitfalls
Effective time management is an acquired skill. It helps to be able to recognize and address common pitfalls that limit productivity and progress. Procrastination is one common challenge that students find can affect their study sessions. One minute a person can be looking at social media, then many minutes later they’ve watched a dozen cat videos without doing any of the coursework they intended to complete.
One way around this is to study for a specified amount of time and allow yourself five minutes to do anything else afterwards. Be strict about returning to your coursework when your five minutes are up. If you get so engrossed in the work and don’t want the break, continue and take a slightly longer break when you are ready. You might find that you don’t want to interrupt your study session and the longer break acts as a reward.
If background noise is becoming a problem, turn off the TV in the room or use noise-canceling headphones. You can also set your phone to do not disturb so that you won’t be interrupted, but make sure you have a landline number for people to contact you if there is a genuine emergency.
Multitasking is another potential pitfall. It may seem like a great way to complete several tasks in less time than they would take individually, however, in reality, you may make more mistakes and focus less on each thing. So, give each task your undivided attention to avoid having to go over it again.
Consider how to manage time effectively
Effective time management can contribute to the success of your online nursing qualification. Practicing techniques such as creating structured study schedules, setting realistic goals and avoiding common pitfalls like procrastination and multitasking, can help students to increase productivity and achieve better academic results. Mastering time management is a skill that can be developed with practice and dedication.
