Whether you are on placement as a student, studying or engaging in work, it will require self-directed time management to balance the different spheres of life. Depending on your placement location or work situation, tasks may vary. Use strategies like chunking, the Pomodoro technique, or apps like Forest to stay focused and avoid burnout. Regular breaks and stretching also improve productivity and wellbeing. This lesson will provide strategies and tips for managing your time effectively because effectively managing time can assist with minimising stress.
We consider this topic early in the course, because learning to manage your time effectively will make a significant difference in the way in which you can employ self-care strategies. Indeed, time management is a type of self-care!
Managing your time well can make life feel a lot less stressful. When you know what needs to be done and when you’re going to do it, you’re less likely to feel overwhelmed or caught off guard. It also gives you more breathing room to rest and recharge.
You will find quite a few ideas in this section It’s not meant to be overwhelming; it is about introducing some ways people like to manage their time effectively. Feel free to pass over items you don’t think will work for you. In saying that, stay curious! You just never know what might work effectively for you unless you try it out.
Tasks on Placement
Depending on your placement location, some of the tasks you may need to manage each week include:
- Client appointments and completing case notes
- Preparing for and attending supervision
- Online training and professional development
- Administrative duties
- Telephone duties
- University work
- Staying informed on current social affairs and media
- Participating in, supporting, and helping to coordinate group meeting
- Conducting client and service user interviews under supervision
- Managing documentation and reports, including reviewing case files and compiling summaries
- Engaging with external agencies and services through site visits
- Supporting and leading community engagement, advocacy, training, and educational initiatives
- Collecting and interpreting data for research, case histories, or program assessments
- Observing, planning, or facilitating non-therapeutic group sessions (e.g., teaching life skills, financial literacy, activity-based groups, or youth education programs)
- Providing one-on-one client support, including social skills development
- Administering and scoring assessment tools, surveys, and questionnaires
- Compiling social histories and preparing various reports
- Contributing to special projects such as program evaluations, event planning, or developing new initiatives
- Handling administrative tasks, including creating client information packs and staff resources
- Reviewing new educational materials and videos for potential client use
- Attending professional development events such as conferences, seminars, and training workshops
- Assisting with drafting funding proposals or supporting fundraising efforts
Your placement will require effective self-directed time management and the capacity to autonomously organise the structure of your day with assistance from your task supervisor.
The Mechanics of Time Management
There are a lot of ways you can manage your time effectively (just google “time management tips”). This section highlights a few strategies you can experiment with. Ideally, over time, you will learn what works best for you as you gain experience juggling different aspects of your placement responsibilities and beyond into your professional practice.
This course aims to incorporate real scenarios from students working on elements of self-care and time management so this course isn’t just information that is thrown out at you at a theoretical levels.
Shared below is an example from a previous student who developed a system for matching energy levels with certain tasks. The approach this student has taken is based loosely The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. The authors argue that managing energy, not time, is the key to high performance, health, and happiness. The book emphasises building physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual energy through intentional routines, rest, and recovery, allowing people to perform at their best in a sustainable way.
Steps 1 to 4 is the way this particular student worked on developing their time management skills during university with other high personal commitments. However, please note that the table examples are fictional. Further below, other strateiges will be introduced.
1. Create a Skeleton
It can be helpful to do up a skeleton schedule of your week as a starting point. During the first weeks of placement, you may get a broad sense of how days are structured. Some placements, each day may look different, or you might find that days are similar. What you are looking for when creating a weekly skeleton are the broad and predictable elements, such as start time, end time, breaks, and any regular events that may occur on a daily or weekly basis. That way, you can factor in travel times and weave other tasks, such as university work or social activities, around more fixed tasks.
A Case Example Day – Wiser Ways Placement
The following provides an example skeleton structure of what a typical day at Wiser Ways during the first weeks may look like. Depending on where you are doing your placement, it may look quite different. In reality, each day will look different, but forming this kind of skeleton is a great starting point that can be finessed as placement progresses.
8:30-9:30am: Arrive and meeting with supervisor
9:30-10:30am – Work on learning plan
10:30-11:30am – Client appointment
11:30am-12:30pm – Case notes and research
12:30-1:00pm – Lunch (sit outside to eat today?)
1:00-2:30pm – ACT course
2:30-3:30pm – ACT course
3:30-4:00pm – Administrative duties
4.00-4.30pm – Reflection
4.30pm – 30-minute walk after placement day has ended
2. Write down your tasks
Each day, it can be helpful to jot down a list of tasks that you may like to achieve. This can include some self-care and personal elements too, which we will cover later in the course.
3. Match tasks to your energy levels (when possible)
Once you’ve created a list of your tasks (placement and university), it can be useful to group them based on how mentally demanding they are and when you tend to work best. For instance, you might find you’re most focused in the morning, or perhaps later in the evening suits you better.
Of course, real life doesn’t always allow for a perfect schedule—some tasks need to be done at specific times regardless of your energy levels. Still, being aware of which tasks require more brainpower can help you plan more effectively.
For example, when it comes to university work, if you’re writing an assignment (and you find the initial phases of this task especially demanding) and know you work best in the morning, you might set aside time on Saturday mornings for writing. Editing, which may be less mentally taxing for you, could then be done whenever there’s a spare moment or one evening after placement. Knowing these things about yourself can give you confidence to get done what you need to each week in a sustainable way, and importantly, in a way that works for you.
This approach can also be applied during your placement. While many tasks will be scheduled by your supervisor, there may be elements of your workload that you have some flexibility. In those cases, consider ensuring you can deliver high levels of attention and mind-space when required, and plan accordingly.
The same principle can be extended to all areas of life—whether it’s booking appointments, managing general life admin, or making time for rest and activities you enjoy when they’ll feel most rewarding.
This isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach—experiment with this if you believe it will suit you, or try it out to see if it helps you manage your time and energy more effectively with university, life and placement tasks.
Below is an example table of how this may look with a few example tasks in each column for one type of person. Some people find editing work difficult and writing easy, so it depends on the person.
4. Put it Together and Create a visual schedule
Now map out tasks in a more complex daily timetable, using colour coding that reflects what you’ve learned works best for your routine. Again, only do this if it works for you!
This should be an evolving system as you experiment with what works best for you. Below is just a mock example and not a real example of a day at placement. The important thing to consider with this example is matching energy levels to high-level tasks and making sure you manage both your time and your energy so you can focus highly where it matters most.
For example, if you know you have an important meeting later in the day, you might structure your day to ensure you have energy levels for that meeting by doing lighter tasks during the morning. This also goes with doing university work: when you work out when you work best, and the types of work you find most challenging, you can structure your university work accordingly.
Code:
Other Time Management Techniques
Action Priority Matrix Option
If you’re the kind of person who prefers less of a micro-management approach (as in the example above), you may like to experiment with a similar method but allocate tasks more broadly as you work towards goals.
The Action Priority Matrix is a simple decision-making tool used to prioritise tasks based on two key criteria: impact and effort. The matrix is typically laid out as a 2×2 grid, with the vertical axis representing the potential impact of an action (from low to high) and the horizontal axis representing the effort or resources required (from low to high).
This creates four distinct quadrants: Quick Wins (high impact, low effort), Major Projects (high impact, high effort), Fill-ins (low impact, low effort), and Thankless Tasks (low impact, high effort).
To use the matrix, you begin by listing all the possible tasks or actions you’re considering. Then, evaluate each one by estimating how much impact it would have on your goals and how much effort it would take to complete. Once you’ve plotted your tasks within the matrix, you can use their position to guide your priorities—focusing first on Quick Wins to build momentum, carefully planning Major Projects, delegating or batching Fill-ins, and questioning whether Thankless Tasks are worth doing at all.
This approach helps ensure your time and energy are directed towards activities that yield the most value. You can use the printable below if it is useful to you. Simply click the image below to access the PDF file, or click here: Action Priority Matrix.
The Eisenhower Matrix
Some people like to use the Eisenhower Matrix to manage their time effectively by considering the urgency and importance of certain tasks. Please note, these strategies do not need to be used in isolation, but can be used in conjunction with other strategies and incorporated into effective time management plans.
This particular method aims to support clear thinking, prioritisation, and time management by helping individuals decide how to handle tasks based on urgency and importance. Consider the graphic below:
Instructions
🟦 Quadrant 1: DO (Urgent + Important)
These are the tasks that need immediate attention.
Conversation Prompts:
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What deadlines are looming right now?
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Are there any crises or pressing problems you need to resolve?
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What consequences will happen if this task is not done today or this week?
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What support do you need to get these done efficiently?
Example: Finalising a report due today, urgent placement documentation, attending a key meeting.
🟩 Quadrant 2: DECIDE (Not Urgent + Important)
These are your long-term priorities and big-picture goals.
Conversation Prompts:
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What tasks contribute most to your growth, learning, or success?
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What would you do if you had uninterrupted time and energy?
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When can you schedule time for these tasks?
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What boundaries can you set to protect this time?
Example: Preparing for exams, reflective journaling, planning a project, self-care practices.
🟧 Quadrant 3: DELEGATE (Urgent + Not Important)
Tasks that feel pressing but could be done by someone else. On placement, it would be unlikely that you will need to delegate tasks, but it is important to consider if you feel any tasks sit outside your practice and speak to your task supervisor if you are concerned. Regardless, these skills are important for your future career.
Conversation Prompts:
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Is this task truly your responsibility?
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Could someone else help or take it over?
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Can this be automated, shared, or simplified?
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Is saying “yes” to this pulling you away from your priorities?
Example: Answering non-essential emails, booking appointments, coordinating logistics.
🟥 Quadrant 4: DELETE (Not Urgent + Not Important)
Tasks that don’t add value and may be distractions.
Conversation Prompts:
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Are these tasks helping you achieve your goals?
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How do you feel after doing them—refreshed or drained?
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What can you let go of to free up mental space?
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Are you using this task to avoid something more important?
Example: Excessive scrolling, unnecessary meetings, overchecking emails or socials.
The Pomodoro Technique
One technique you may be familiar with from your time at university is the Pomodoro technique. The Pomodoro technique requires you to break tasks into 25-minute focused sessions with a 5-minute break in between with the option for a longer break after four sessions.
However, any length of time can be used with the Pomodoro technique, and it can be helpful to experiment to find your own rhythm. By using the Pomodoro technique, you can focus on getting through the next 25 minutes instead of worrying about the next 250 hours! The Pomodoro technique can be applied to your studies, placement, or any number of activities and can help to maintain focus while reducing feelings of burnout.
Do you work better with apps?
Forest is a great and fun tool for using the Pomodoro technique. Forest also contributes to planting real trees, so you’re also helping the environment by using it!
Don’t Forget to Stand Up and Stretch!
To end this section, here’s a reminder to get up and stretch periodically! Research has shown that standing up for even one minute each hour has immense health benefits, including improved blood flow, maintaining muscle and postural strength and reducing the risks of more serious illnesses. So, each hour, don’t be afraid to get up, have a stretch. Your body and your mind will thank you for it!
Reflection
Just remember, this is just information that may or may not be useful to you. You may like to try the strategies and develop time management over the course of your placement, or you may already have effective time management plans in place.
Next module, we will start looking at self-care strategies, and you may like to come back here and weave some of the elements into your daily/weekly schedule.