Time management is a struggle for most people but for college students it can be a difficult transition. You are probably used to some hand holding or having to be accountable to other people in order to get your work completed. There isn’t any hand holding or accountability to others in college.
To be successful in college you must know how to manage the most critical resource-time.
- Set priorities-not every task is important. You have 5 choices for each task. Delete, delay, diminish, delegate, or do.
- Delete –ask yourself what is the purpose of this task? Does doing it help me reach a goal?
- Delay-ask yourself can this task wait?
- Diminish-ask yourself is there a way to do this task to make it easier or shorter? Sometimes good enough is good enough
- Delegate-ask yourself who can I delegate this to? Hire employees count as delegation. Try having a roommate proof read an essay, or share chores in your apartment to lighten the load of cleaning. There are lots of ways to delegate; be creative.
- Do-ask yourself does this help me reach a goal? Yes-do it!
- Know yourself-now that you know what priorities you have, when are you going to do them? Schedule a time in a planner for your priorities. If you are a morning person, hit the library early to study or exercise. If you are a night owl, commit to studying later and not hanging out with friends.
- Choose a healthy life-style -Heard of the freshman 15 or pulling all-nighters? Try to avoid everything you know is unhealthy. Choose to eat well, exercise and sleep. All have been proven to reduce stress. Take breaks between subjects to clear your mind.
- Be flexible-plan ahead but with a buffer. If you have a research paper or project due: a good rule of thumb is to pad 2 days for every week until the deadline. For general daily scheduling give yourself 90 minutes for 60 minutes of work.
- Bits and pieces-only used 70 minutes of the 90 minutes you planned-great what is on your to-do list that you can get done. Showed up earlier to a meeting-great something done. Some tasks can be accomplished between the big stuff.
- Break it down-make it easy on yourself and do parts of the whole. Scheduling parts will fit better into your schedule and keep you from becoming overwhelmed.
- Survival mode- (AKA) Midterm and finals week! Here is a good time to use the delay from above. Push anything that you can so you can focus on your exams. Let people know in advance that you will be studying for tests and may be out of touch.
- Use a schedule- Schedule your time. Put in the healthy stuff first: sleeping, eating, exercise, self-care. Then places you need to be: Classes!, work, meetings. Then study times: taking 12 credits; you should be studying 24-36 hours outside of class. Lastly, everything else.
- Honor commitments to yourself-this part very well may be the hardest. It means sometimes choosing not hanging out with friends, not going to social media, not playing computer or video games and not pushing the snooze button. A commitment to yourself is as valuable or more valuable than one to someone else but we tend not to see it that way. You would be offended if a friend didn’t show up for a commitment to you so why is it okay for you not to show up for you? Honor yourself!