Throughout the week I noted down most, if not all the things I did and wrote down the time I started everything. This was how my diary looked:
THURSDAY
8.00am – Woke up
9.00am – Did some digipainting
11.00am – Went to get train12.00pm – Lecture start
1.00pm – Finished Lecture. Went to labs to work
2.15pm – Got on train to go home
3.00pm – Worked on War of The Worlds project
4.45pm – Stopped for food
5.15pm – Played Assassins Creed 2
6.00pm – Practised perspective drawing
7.30pm – Doodled in Photoshop
9.00pm – Watched anime
11.00pm – Bed
FRIDAY
9.00am – Woke up
10.00am – Cleaned out hamster
10.40am – Finished painting for a friend
11.00am – Continued War of The Worlds model
2.30pm – Get ready for work
3.45pm – Left for work
10.15pm – Got home and watched TV
12.00am – Bed
SATURDAY
9.00am – Woke up, played Assassins Creed 2
11.00am – Went into town
2.00pm – Came home and worked on War of The Worlds project
4.00pm – Practised Perspective work
6.00pm – Went on the computer and worked on 3D work
8.00pm – Worked on Digipainting
9.30pm – Started watching TV
12.00am – Bed
SUNDAY
9.00am – Woke up
10.00am – Got ready for work
11.30am – Went to work
3.30pm – Sent home from work due to sickness
4.30pm – Bed
MONDAY
7.00am – Got up
8.00am – Went to get train
9.00am – Got to university, did some 3D work
10.00am – Lesson start
4.30pm – Lesson finished
5.15pm – Got on train to go home
5.00 – Got home, started drawing
6.30pm – worked on 3D work
10.00pm – Came off the computer, read book
11.00pm – Bed
TUESDAY
7.00am – Woke up
8.00am – Went to get train
9.00am – Got into university, started 3D work
10.00am – Lesson start
4.00pm – Lesson finished, went to get train
5.00pm – Got home
5.00pm - Worked on digipainting
8.00pm – Watched anime
10.00pm – Went to played Assassins Creed 2
11.00pm – Bed
WEDNESDAY
9.00am – Woke up
11.00am – Went to get train
12.00pm – Got into Leicester, went to get food
1.30pm – Went to go watch film
2.00pm – Lesson Start
4.00pm – Lesson Finished
4.15pm – Got on train
5.00pm – Got home, played Assassins Creed 2
6.00pm – worked on 3D model
9.00pm – Came off computer and watched Pokémon
11.00pm – Bed
In the lecture the following week I was asked to read out my diary of the week and work out how much time was spent doing certain things. After poorly working it all out in my head it was found out that I was missing 30 hours out of 168 hours. I later checked this all and worked it out with a calculator to find that I wasn’t missing so many hours.
There is 168 hours in the week. In the week I spent:
· 69.5 hours sleeping
· 8 hours travelling to university and back via the train
· 15.5 hours in my lectures and lessons
· 29.25 hours out of university working on set work
· 10.5 hours at work
· 23.5 hours doing personal things like gaming, watching television and drawing my own artwork.
After adding all the times together it came to 156.25 hours (156 hours and 15 minutes), this meant I was losing 11 hours and 45 minutes. Some of that time must go towards eating and bathing but it is alot of time to spend just on those things.
To help me see how I spend my time I have created a bar chart to help me see clear and create a plan on how to manage my time
Sleep - Quite a lot of my time is spent sleeping. Sleeping is a necessity but I could wake up a few hours earlier on some days to free up a few more hours to spend on university work. I wouldn’t normally spend this much time sleeping but I became ill on the Sunday and after being sent home from work went straight to bed to get some much needed sleep.
Travel – A good portion of my time is spent travelling to and from university. I am a rather fast walker and try to stay either at university or home as long as a can, leaving minimum time waiting for the train. This means I can’t lessen the amount of time it takes to travel. I could however spend my time on the train and waiting for the train more wisely by drawing the people around me and sketching the scenery
Travel – A good portion of my time is spent travelling to and from university. I am a rather fast walker and try to stay either at university or home as long as a can, leaving minimum time waiting for the train. This means I can’t lessen the amount of time it takes to travel. I could however spend my time on the train and waiting for the train more wisely by drawing the people around me and sketching the scenery
University – Takes up a good portion of time and I should probably spend even more time there.
2D drawing and 3D modelling – This is the university work I do out of university. In the week I did the diary I was working on making a War of The Worlds model for the visual design. I worked on this quit a lot to try and get it finished in the week. I also spent my time digipainting and trying further my knowledge in Photoshop. I also spent my time working on creating my vehicle for my game production project. Though I spent the necessary time for work outside of university I noticed that I spent 18 hours and 45 minutes on drawing and only 10 hours and 30 minutes on game production.
When it comes to working outside of university I have a problem with dividing my time properly between the subjects. This pie chart shows that. I should be splitting my time more evenly so both subjects get the necessary attention.
Work – Though this takes up more time then I would like it to the money gained from working allows me to travel to university and back.
Personal – This is things gaming, watching television (and heaven forbid anime) and drawing my own artwork and artwork for other people. This took up a large chunk of my week and though I was able to get the amount of university work needed within the week done if I dedicated of my time to gaming and more of my time to my studies I could get more practise in which could make me a better worker and also get me a better grade.
Unknown – This is the time that has managed to escape me. The time is probably covers bathing, eating and getting my pet hamster out. This couldn’t possibly add up to 11 hours and 45 minutes so I have to be losing hours somewhere, possibly daydreaming and making decisions. I could use this time doing more important things.
After working out what all my time is being used for I need to create a plan of action so I can use my time more efficiently. When I was younger and revising for exams I found the best way to make me use my time more efficiently and to split my time evenly was to make a timetable and stick to it.
With this time table I now have:
· 23 hours of visual Design work outside university
· 21 hours of 3d modelling work outside of university
· 20 hours of personal (this includes eating, bathing, drawing my own things and watching TV etc)
Making this time table has allowed me to see where I’m losing valuable time. It has also helped me to organise myself and allow myself to concentrate more on my university work by sticking to it.
To help me visualise where my hours have changed and what’s improved I created another pie chart. As it can be seen my amount of sleep and personal has decreased. My work outside university has increased. I have also added “waking up” to my pie chart which is the hour I spend in the morning getting ready for university. Other things have increased like work and university, this is to be more realistic with the time it takes up and so I don’t lose any hours.
RESULTS
I have been following the timetable the best I can even throughout the Christmas holidays replacing university with more homework (and occasionally work). I have found that I have started creating more work then I originally was. Since I also know I have to follow the time table I have became more disciplined when it comes to distractions. This means I spend my working time more wisely and not looking out a window every few minutes.
I think this timetable will prove useful in the next few months, keeping me on track and allowing me to create more work and allowing time to practise new skills which will hopefully help me throughout my time at university.
I have made another timetable which will act as a week two where the 3 hours of personal time I have on a Saturday together is replaced by university work. This will allow me to have more time to do university work.
Even though I am following this timetable I still feel that I am not creating enough artwork to show, which I hope would be fixed by the amount of hours now spent on it. I hope to improve this over time by creating smaller timetables to split my hours up of useful exercises to speed me up and to better my drawing skills.
To conclude I believe this timetable has created a positive result meaning I am using my time more effectively.
