Inform your employer of the fact that you are entering clinicals and request that they modify your schedule to accommodate this extra workload. If financially feasible, reduce your work hours to ensure that you have time to dedicate to finishing your nursing education.
Use a planner to record your time-usage plans. Select a day planner with enough space to record your daily time schedule.
Faithfully record all of your clinic hours to ensure that you don't miss them. In some cases, missing clinical hours can result in failing the entire clinicals process and the need to redo the entire educational step. To ensure that this fate doesn't befall you, double check the clinicals schedule you write down and ask questions of your clinical supervisor if anything is unclear.
Plan for consistent out-of-the-house study time. Particularly if you have a family or are living with potentially disruptive roommates, leaving the house is the best way to get the quiet study time you require. Set a standard study schedule, such as studying Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at your school library. By pre-setting this schedule you decrease the likelihood that you will skip a needed study session.
Move through your syllabi and record the dates of any major exams. Complete this process at the beginning of the clinicals experience to enable yourself to better plan for these assessments.
Schedule in extra study time before these major exams. Write in this extra study time well in advance of the exam to ensure that you don't over-book yourself in the days proceeding these important tests.
Plan for socialization time to ensure that you don't become overwhelmed by the work associated with clinicals. Attempting to cut out all socialization will likely just result in you becoming overworked. Write down these planned socialization times in your planner along with your study plans.