By Ty Tkacik and Thilak Sankar
One of the biggest adjustments students have to make as they progress through college is the amount of time that their assignments will start to take. Studying for tests, writing reports, and making presentations can easily take hours or days to complete, and it only gets more intense as your education continues. Add into this involvement in extracurricular activities like student organizations, greek life, or part-time jobs, and you have a recipe for academic burnout.
The key to sustaining this lifestyle is simple: effective time management.
So, how do you approach juggling your tasks in this busy time of life? Especially if you’re a chronic procrastinator, this task can be daunting at first, but time management is something that you can train yourself to be better at over time! We hope to share with you some of our best tips on how to better manage your time to finish your work while still having time for yourself.
Tip 1 – Keep a calendar or planner!
One of the biggest adjustments you must make to juggle your tasks effectively is to start keeping some type of calendar or planner. Past a certain point, it’s an unrealistic expectation for you to remember everything you have to do; things are going to slip through the cracks and you will start falling behind! By getting into the habit of maintaining a calendar, you will have a rock-solid understanding of what your obligations are and how you can begin to approach them.
When choosing which type of calendar service you can use, you can use digital apps like Google Calendar or a physical calendar. While both have their pros and cons, you should try out both to see which style helps you better plan out your schedule. Some people are huge proponents of using physical calendars, while others are much more suited for digital calendars and how they can be easily integrated into programs like Outlook or Canvas.
Which calendar you use comes up to personal preference and how you like to remember things. If you’re a digital notes person and need to set alarms or reminders for yourself, a digital calendar might be more your speed. However, if you prefer to see everything written out at the start of the week, a physical calendar might be a better fit. If you started with one method and find that it’s not working for you, switch over to the other and try planning a week or two! You get to control your decision, so be open-minded, and find which one works better for you.
Tip 2 – Lay out your tasks at the start of the week.
For people new to effective time management, jumping right into keeping a running monthly calendar can easily become overwhelming. One of the tactics that helps me as a chronic procrastinator and last-minute planner is to ease myself into time management by establishing a weekly itinerary for myself every Sunday. I still get the benefits of taking some time to plan out my tasks, but it isn’t nearly as overwhelming as trying to plan out a month in advance. I turned the whole process into a bit of a game! I get a lot of satisfaction out of establishing goals for myself at the start of the week, and being able to visualize myself putting in work and getting things done by crossing out tasks while I complete them helps reinforce this behavior and make it something that I look forward to when I start my week. To get started, you could simply write a To-Do list.
Tip 3 – Deciding which tasks are the most important.
After all your tasks have been laid out, you should decide which tasks are the most important on your list. You can determine this by looking at which tasks are due soon or what would take longer to do. Doing this activity will help you allocate the proper amount of time for your most important tasks and break down bigger assignments into smaller and more manageable chunks. A general rule of thumb to successfully achieve this tip is prioritizing tasks that directly contribute to achieving future goals as opposed to less impactful ones. Considering deadlines and repercussions is another great way to effectively manage your time and create a sufficient schedule.
Tip 4 – Setting aside time for self-care!
The last tip is to block out time for yourself within these busy days for activities such as exercise, relaxation, spending time with family and friends, and proper sleep. The truth of the matter is we are all human and we all have limits. Constantly overworking yourself will make you less productive, pushing you to procrastinate and overload yourself in the future. Additionally, doing activities you enjoy will result in more productive work sessions and promote healthier physical and mental health. This can range from things like exercise or even reading a book.
Learning how to better manage your time can be difficult at first. Hopefully, some tips discussed throughout this article can help you set yourself up for success, even in the face of a crazy workload! If you start implementing these tips incrementally into your life over time, they start becoming habitual, and will eventually turn into something you naturally do.
Happy Valley Comm 