Planning Your Work

In doing a research, time is very important. You must know how to manage your time and how to plan it so you can finish your research on time. I will explain to you how I plan my time:

Step 1: List out your task

First, list out your task. You can list it out based on chapters or activities. Examples:

1. Chapter 1 (Based on Chapters)

•     Problem Statement
•     Research Objectives

2. Literature Review (Based on Activities)

•     Find Journals
•     Summarize Journals

Step 2: Plan when you target to finish the task

Refer to a calendar and state how long are you planning to spend on one task and put a milestone (the date) when do you target to finish the task. Examples:

Find Journals (3 days - 5/5/2010 - 7/5/2010)
Summarize Journals (30 days - 8/5/2010 - 8/6/2010)

Step 3: Use software to draw the chart

The chart is called Gantt Chart. You can draw the Gantt Chart by using Microsoft Project or Microsoft Visio. You can easily do step 1 and step 2. You can also add extra activities such as milestone (the day you will submit the task) or put link between task (it mean the task is related to each other). You can plan your work for a month, a year or for the whole research.

Step 4: Print it
Print the chart and put it on your board/table so you know what your target is. You may not achieve some of your target on time but by looking at it everyday it will remind you that you have a lot to do. I show you my planning or my Gantt Chart for this year.

Gantt Chart

This is how I planning my work. I hope I can achieve at least 70% of my target. So, how are you planning your work?