To succeed you need to manage the resources needed for completing an assignment. Poor organisation can waste large amounts of time. Managing resources well can help you streamline the studying process and give you the maximum amount of time to draft and write the finished article.

Advance Planning

The key to managing resources is to plan ahead. When you are given an assignment make a list of the resources you will need to complete it. These could include books and journals, notes which you will make, access to computing facilities and the Internet, and possibly access to human resources - if you are conducting a research project you may well need to interview people. When you have completed the list look closely at what you already have and what you don't have and find a way of getting these things. Access to computing facilities is straightforward, Hollybank has excellent computing rooms open long hours during term-time.

Keeping Track of Resources

As you complete work on your project you will create resources which you need to keep track of. Nothing is more frustrating than completing a set of notes and losing them - but it happens often. Prevent this by keeping notes and other printed material safe in a folder - if you keep one folder for each assignment you won't have to sort through before beginning work.

Losing data on computers
Computers can be a major asset when completing assignments, but poor management of data can have disastrous consequences. The problem can be compounded when you move data between computers and leave it stored on a floppy disk. Follow these guidelines to make sure you never lose valuable work.

1. Save your work regularly
Computers crash - a fact, and often at the worst possible time. Make sure you save your work to file regularly during a session. If you save every 15 minutes then this is the maximum amount of work you could lose. If not you might do three hours work and lose it all. Many wordprocessors and other programs have autosave features which save you having to remember. Check the help files for guidance on enabling this life-saving feature.

2. Keep backups
Backups are extra copies of vital files, kept in case the originals become corrupted or lost. At the end of a computing session, try and save your work at least twice and in two different places. If you are copying files to a floppy disk invest in a second and copy exactly the same files again. Floppies are notoriously flimsy and often fail without warning and give you no chance of extracting your precious work. A back-up floppy lessens this risk. If you are saving data on a hard disk then assess how likely it is to be deleted. On your own computer this may not happen, but if you share the computer with others a deletion could happen easily. A back up on floppy could save a lot of heartache.

3. Make printed versions
If you complete a great deal of work you may well like to print it out and keep a hard copy. Doing this after every revision is undoubtedly a waste of print, but at key points in the assignment it's probably worth the trouble for two reasons. Firstly if all of your disks and computer and everything else digital comes to grief you'll still have a copy, and secondly you can read the hard copy and it will give you a fresh perspective on your work. You'll probably be surprised when you print it out quite how much you've done.