College is the beginning of the rest of your life, and with all the freedom that you get, you also get a lot of responsibility. To that end, there is only one thing you need to learn that will help you succeed in college, and beyond: time management. What is it and how do you do it? Read below to find out!
What is time management?
Time management is the ability to organize your time such that you effectively use your time every moment of the day. Now this does not mean study for 10 hours a day every day. It ‘s good to think of time management as a way of organizing your life, so you have less stress, better grades, and more fun during your time in college.
How do you get started?
The first step to organizing your time is by tracking how you spend your time now. Get a piece of paper or find a tracking sheet by typing “time management sheet” into Google. Once you have your sheet, take it around with you throughout the day and fill it out as the day goes on. Do this for a couple of days. The purpose of tracking of your time is to see when and where you waste the most time.
Do you go home and spend an hour on social media before even looking at homework? Do you realize that you always seem to get work done whenever you go back home instead of staying at school? A time-tracking sheet will show you all of the ways you’re wasting time and using it effectively!
The next step is to build a schedule! Now, this may sound very adult and boring, but in fact creating a schedule will make sure you have time for all the fun things that college has to offer. Now the key to building a schedule that you can follow is by looking at your time-tracking sheet and seeing where you have time to do certain things. A good convention to follow is: do homework and class stuff as early as you can so you free up your nights and afternoons.
Of course, there will be exceptions like for finals week and midterms, but it ‘s good to get into the habit of doing homework early, so you are not stressing about it the night before. Another good convention to follow is: schedule the fun stuff too!!! This does not mean schedule empty spaces for you to go on social media, this means look for fun things to do with your friends and schedule times to go and do them! It is easy just to let the semester pass without enjoying the city, and college, you are studying in. So you might as well plan to have fun while you plan to study!
What tools should you use?
There are several organizational tools and they vary depending on the phone you have, the laptop you use, and the type of person you are. The one tool that anyone can use is a physical planner. A planner allows you to keep everything organized in one easy to access book that can be carried around with you in your backpack, purse, etc. Another tool that should be used is the calendar app in your phone and laptop. Many times these apps have settings that allow you to repeat events and alarms for events automatically, so you don’t forget, and you have a constant reminder to help you keep on track.
For special events or exceptions to your schedule, use the alarm app on your phone or computer to make sure you don’t miss them.
At first, time-management will seem a little daunting, but after you get into the habit of it, you will realize that managing college isn’t as hard as many people think it is. You will be able to keep it together and enjoy every moment while other people are stressing about class and not having enough time. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be helping them set up their time-management schedule!
Either way, send this article to the people that need it, should read it, or have done it to see what they think!
