How much time do I spend...

I certainly understand that students all have committments beside this class – work, friends, family all require your attention. Whether realistic or not, professors generally see university students as "full timers" (i.e. spending 45+ hr/week on classtime). This might or might not describe what you can realistically devote each week, but it is nontheless what professors expect students to do in order to do well in their classes.

How much time should I spend on this class?

Expect to put in about 9-12 hrs per week for this class alone.

• Our class is officially allotted 3hrs/ week of instructional time. This will be divided between lectures and time for practical and/or group exercises that we will work on together during class time (Mondays & Wednesdays from 10:00 to 11:30 am).

In university, we consider students as largely independent learners. We thus imagine classroom meetings as a jumping off point for students to keep going. Self-directed study is what really allows students familiarize themselves with the content of the lectures. Most courses expect that you spend 2-3 hours/ week for each hour of classroom instruction (so, in our case, expect to work about 6-9 hours per week reading, writing and thinking).

• reading for class (1-2 hours)

• thinking and writing for class (1-2 hours)

• researching and writing assignments (2-4 hours)

Keep in mind this is time averaged over the term. Some weeks you may spend less time reading for class, and more time writing an assignment. Depending on how well you plan ahead, you might be working much more than 2-4 hours some weeks on an assignment (i.e. if you're not working steadily over the course of the term, you will have some very long work weeks).

You might find that you really get into the game play and might spend more than 12 hours a week, reading, strategizing, working your networks and building conspiracies. You need therefore to step away from the class to make sure you are working enough on your other courses!

I think we should propose a general rule of etiquette of avoiding messaging other students between 10pm and 9am (so that we can all take a break).

I might also need to spend additional time on ...

• talking to the professor. You will at times want or need more explanation on an assignment, readings or task they you don't understand. Talking with the professor is the best option for this - usually meetings last about a 1/2 hour to address a relatively straightfoward topic.

• talking to classmates. You might need to spend some time co-ordinating with students about assignments or group work. Or you might want to just talk to them...

• going down research rabbit holes. Whether a student or professor, historians can get distracted by super-interesting but totally irrelevent research. Among professional historians it is not uncommon for someone to spend a day working on one footnote (I don't recommend this!). You might discover you become fascinated by medieval brewing techniques while researching something on Benedictine monks.

If you want to track your time:

• you can simply set an alarm to go off every 15 minutes, and you keep a paper list of what you were working on during that time (class A readings, project X, goofing off, eating ...)

• you can do the same thing with apps. You can sign up for free for a barebones timetracker app like Toggl or gamified fantasy-based versions like Habitica, Bounty Tasker and Productivity Challenge.

If you want to learn how to manage your time better or would like someone to help you with your academic work outside of class, you should get in contact with the Centre for Student Support who regularly gives (online) workshops on skills for academic success or can set you up for some peer tutoring.