This semester, I am taking on a lot of responsibilities and with them comes a lot of time and work. I, of course, really want to do all of these tasks well and am also determined to take better care of myself in the process. Here is a list of some things I am doing to set myself up for a productive semester.
- Get my schedule figured out early
I have 2 on-campus jobs, an internship, 4 e-board positions, and a few other extracurricular commitments on top of my full course load. I knew early on that in order to make this work, I needed to carefully organize my schedule to give myself enough time to do it all. This step is still in the works even a week into school because there are just so many moving parts but I am hoping to have everything finalized by the end of this week.
- Create a assignment tracker
Last spring, I was feeling really overwhelmed with the amount of work I had to do towards the end and felt like I couldn’t keep track of what I had due when. I made a Google Sheet that organized my assignments by date and were color coded according to the class. This helped me so much and so I decided to make another one for this semester. I wrote down every assignment and due date I have for every class last week and it’s been helping me stay on top of my work tremendously.
- Form morning and night routines
Until this summer, I had never had any routines. I don’t know why, I just never thought to set any. At the end of August, I wrote down a morning and night routine to follow so that I would do the things that I wanted to do each day and feel good knowing that I was forming positive habits. This has helped me a lot at Bentley, too, as it lets me start and end my day with structure.
- Input daily responsibilities into a calendar
When you have so many commitments, it’s easy to forget about a meeting or event here and there. By inputting your tasks into a calendar, you have something that you can check every day and remind yourself of where you need to be at what times.
- Write down monthly goals
I am someone who has a lot of goals for myself and feels upset when I forget about them or don’t prioritize them. By giving myself the space to think about my goals and specifically set them by writing them down each month, I feel more inclined to keep them in mind and work towards achieving them.
There are so many great ways to set yourself up to make the most out of your semester and stay on top of your responsibilities, but these are just some things that I am choosing to do! I hope this can help anyone who is feeling overwhelmed with their schedule :)