(00:07): A whopping 64%. That's how many civil engineers out there mentioned the single biggest challenge that they face in their exam prep is finding time in their busy lives to sit down and actually study. So how can you find time to squeeze in in your busy day when you already got tons of responsibilities, family obligations, household chores, everything else that you gotta take up in between all of that? Well, the good news is there is a proven management technique that works like a charm to help you find the time you need every day to spend time on your own exam preparation. It's been used by many of the most successful people out there to do what actually needs to be done. And you can use it too for your studies as well. Hey, I'm Isaac Kier with Civil Engineering Academy. Stick with me till the very end as we dive into what this technique is and how we go over this step by step process to apply it in your own busy life. We will see you in a minute.

(01:13): Alright, let's begin this thing. From the very beginning, you've probably already heard about it, but this time management technique is called time blocking. And time blocking is all about breaking down your day into separate blocks of time, each one dedicated to a specific task with a start and a finish time. To that, there are three reasons why this technique works. First, it puts your priorities whatever the first ones are first. Look, we all wanna do more things than we have time to do them in. When with time blocking for every new thing that you consider saying yes to, you have to find a physical space on your calendar first. Now, this makes you take a very hard look at your existing obligations and your priorities, making it a lot easier to say no to, less important things in your life and more to the things you need to focus on, which is your exam prep.

(02:06): And the second thing that this thing does for you is that it puts you in control of your own time. It's super easy to become busy with all the things that are going on throughout your day, but this doesn't mean that you're busy with what actually moves the needle for you. Time blocking forces you to block off time for the right thing, which is your need to achieve your goals. And in your case, setting the same time to prepare for your exam should be it. And if we're gonna help you on your jury to pass your exams, you got to be prepared to do that. And finally, the third thing that's gonna help you with is that you are more likely to study if you do time blocking in a Harvard research paper. The researchers found that when people set aside a specific date and time for a specific activity, they are more likely to follow through with their plans doing that activity.

(02:54): That's probably why my wife is so good at planning things and doing things. Look, time blocking forces you to do that, specifying not only the days you need to study every week, but also when to study and for how long during those days. Alright, now that that's outta the way, let's dive right into how to build a time blocking calendar for your own exam. Now the basic idea here is to open up a blank weekly calendar and start breaking down your days into separate blocks of time based on how you would spend your normal week during your exam prep. Now I'm gonna use Google's calendar to show the four steps how to build this thing, but you can use any calendar app out there and even a paper planner if you want to. Those are very popular and of course I'm gonna show you may not.

(03:37): It's just an example. It's not gonna be specifically applied to you in your case, but the idea here is to help you get a feel for the process. But you're gonna have to use your own commitments, your own obligations and all that's going on in your life to apply this. If you're ready for that, let's go. Yes. Alright. Step number one here is start with a blink weekly calendar opened and start by including your non-negotiables. These are obviously things that you cannot neglect otherwise your health will suffer. You won't be able to learn anything from your exam prep material and that is no good. Now, your non-negotiables could look like this. Number one sleep. You gotta have seven to eight hours of sleep every day unless you have kids like me. Maybe that's five or six, but it's helpful to get your seven or eight in.

(04:22): Another one is to exercise at least one hour exercise every day. If you can squeeze that in, even go on a brisk walk for 30 minutes. Anything you can do to exercise. If that is a non-negotiable, put that in there. Another for one is meals. Maybe you need to block off some time for meals during the day, whether that's breakfast, lunch, dinner, maybe you have family obligations, things of that sort. I mean you gotta eat right? So block off the time that you have for meal prep or just to eat and that should wrap up that step. Alright, next up is fixed obligations. Fixed obligations are things you have to do either on a daily or a weekly basis. And it includes, for example, some of these things, work hours, you know you've got your usual nine to 5, 8, 4, whatever it is, you gotta work.

(05:05): Let's go ahead and put that in your calendar. Don't forget, add commute time to and from work. Let's say that's one hour. Either way, whatever your situation is, make sure you block off time for that commute time. Put that in the calendar. Another one is time with family. Things like helping with the kids. Maybe you've got homework you gotta help with on the weekdays and maybe you spend quality time with them on the weekends. I'm not sure what it is, but make sure you block off time for that as well. We're getting everything into your calendar. You also have family commitments. Block off time for picking up the kids from school, taking them to sports practice, anything you're dealing with like that, make sure that's in there as well. Hey, don't forget, we also have household chores that can be cleaning the house, fixing stuff around the house.

(05:46): You get your to-do list, make sure you get on that as well. Put that in the calendar and obviously there is a whole lot more. So your fixed obligations really depend on your own situation. You know what I'm talking about. Put 'em all on your calendar 'cause you're gonna wanna put 'em in there. Alright, next step on this is step number three and that is block off your study time. Now with time already set aside for things you can't neglect, you can now literally see the chunks of time that you have available to you and that's where we can weave in all the study time that we need to during our week. Now the rule of thumb on this that I share with all students of the review courses that we have is that you should study at least two hours during the weekday. That's Monday through FRI Friday and four hours on the weekends.

(06:30): And if you can do four hours on Saturday and Sunday, or maybe you've got six hours on Saturday, breaking that up into three hours each, any way you can split that even better, go for it. So for this particular example, let's say you can study for two hours after work every weekday, but only put in four hours of study time on Saturdays and nothing on Sundays. And that's totally fine. So go on and block off those study hours so you can realistically put in so nothing else gets in the way of your exam prep. And finally we have step four, which is gonna leave. We gotta leave ourselves some free time, right? Time blocking works like magic, but don't get too obsessed with it to a point that you are assigning yourself a task every waking moment. That's ridiculous. So in the long run, this only causes you to burn out if you're gonna do that.

(07:18): And when you do burn out, the first thing you're gonna do is give up on your exam prep. That's no good. So make sure to weave in then some free time in your week with nothing scheduled to happen. So you can use it as you like to. And the good thing is this free time can be used to catch up on some studying if you missed one or two study sessions during the week for whatever reason that came up. So it's kind of a win-win if you do that. Okay, so now you know how time blocking works for your exam prep, but there are three common mistakes you should avoid if you want to use this technique correctly and if you want it to work, first thing is that you underestimate your time. Alright? We are terrible at estimating how long it takes to complete any task.

(07:59): Most of the time we think we can do it much faster than we actually can and we don't give it enough time. So as a rule of thumb, give yourself more time than you think you need. For example, instead of blocking off four hours on a Saturday afternoon, maybe you should try blocking off five hours knowing that you're only gonna give it four hours. That extra hour allows you to stick to your schedule even if things are out of your control that happen. Worst case scenario, the task takes a little longer than you thought and you put in some extra time in there to get it done. That's totally fine. Best case scenario is that you finish the task earlier than you thought and you have some additional free time to spend however you want. Either way, it's a win-win. Okay? Mistake number two is not being flexible.

(08:42): This time blocking study calendar that you build is only a model. It's a model of how you would spend your ideal week. In reality, most weeks definitely won't be like this. Look, life's gonna happen. Things will come up and you're gonna have to move your blocks of time to account for these unexpected things without letting go of your study time, which is crucial to hang on to. So for example, if you have a birthday coming up next week on Saturday afternoon, right? On the day and time that you've actually blocked off some study time, you're gonna need to move your Saturday study spot into another spot, no problem. So just keep in mind that your time blocking study calendar is not set in stone. You can tweak it as you go along. This is why I think a weekly review is key in this situation.

(09:27): Every week just sit down to think about what's coming up for the week ahead and then plan your blocks of time accordingly. I have found that Sunday is a pretty good day to do that. Okay, let's talk about mistake number three. That is overscheduling, okay? Time blocking works. But if you try to block off time to do many different things at once, it's not gonna work. Look, if you're blocking off time to study your exam, to learn a new software tool, to do volunteer work and on and on and on at the same moment in your life, you are way too busy and you're not gonna have time or the free time or quality time to spend with friends and family, you're way too busy. Get some stuff up. If you're doing this, you are gonna be tied up 24 7, which is gonna cause you to burn out even faster.

(10:10): So my advice to you on this is to include the non-negotiables and the fixed obligations first, because you cannot stop working and picking up your kids from school. Then the only thing else that you need to add to your life at this moment in your life is your exam prep. This not only makes you more likely to pass your exam sooner because it's the only thing you're gonna be doing, but it also gives you time left over to relax, to enjoy, to recharge, and all of those things are important in your life. Alright everybody, that's gonna be it for this video. I totally relate to the fact that finding time to study is the biggest challenge to more than 60% of you out there. So I decided to make this video to help us all out. The truth is it's all about priorities. If you want to pass your exam, you need to make this a priority blocking off time to study and protect that time.

(10:59): It's the only way to do this and I'm pumped to see you on this journey. And if you need help, go check out our review courses. We have one for the fe, we have one for the pe, and we have one for CFM exams. You're definitely gonna love them. They come with everything that you need to acce your exams. Go check that out as well. So check out the links below. We've put descriptions to all those things down there. And don't forget to subscribe and click the bell button for more of what we publish here to help you out on your own journey. I'm Isaac Kuson Civil Engineering Academy, a platform built by civil engineers for civil engineers just like you help pass your exams and become a professional engineer. Thanks for sticking with me on this video for another quick tip video and we'll see you on the next one. See ya.