I have always struggled to coordinate my life. I, along with many of my friends, have had issues adjusting to the unstructured life of college and the difficulty in balancing necessary tasks and responsibilities with self care. This semester, I made it a priority to be more on top of my shit, and here are a few tips I’ve figured out along the way.
- Figure out what time you work best
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It is easy to just deem yourself “lazy” or “unproductive” because you prefer staying up late to rolling out of bed at 9 AM and cranking out a problem set. Not wanting to wake up early doesn’t make you inherently unproductive. It’s simply a matter of figuring out what time to do work works best for you. In order to tune into your most productive self, think about when you’re able to get the most work done. Is it at 2 AM? Noon? 5pm? Knowing this about yourself can help you decide when to start studying. I never wake up early, so I don’t stress myself out by leaving work for the morning and prefer to get it finished the night before, when I work best.
- Understand that you’re never going to want to do the work
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Sometimes, I romanticize a version of myself who pulls out her cute little planner and water bottle and just sits down and happily cranks through three hours of work. Maybe in a few hours or tomorrow I will magically wake up and be that girl. Don’t fool yourself! This is not a legit way to live and romanticizing or idealizing a self that doesn’t exist isn’t productive. You’re going to hate doing work no matter what, so it’s a matter of just sitting down and doing it.
- Make a Google calendar
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A main issue I used to have was that I didn’t understand how I spent my days or what I did. If you are a visual learner, a Google calendar or any other calendar is a great way to keep track of your time. Work, play, classes…. put EVERYTHING in the calendar. So then, at the beginning of the week if you are trying to plan out study time, you know exactly how much time you have available.
- Don’t overwhelm yourself
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Sometimes I will put everything I have to do on my schedule, get burnt out looking at everything, and do absolutely none of it. I still struggle with this tip, but try the “three thing rule.” Identify three big things that you need to do, and focus on doing them the best you can. Doing three things is a lot more manageable, and the alternative is so overwhelming that you might get nothing at all done. Three is better than none.
- Overestimate the time needed to do things
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Don’t eff yourself over: double the amount of time needed for each project so you’re not feeling rushed. If there isn’t enough time to do everything, prioritize assignments that will impact your GPA or your success in a class.
- adopt a “failure is okay” mindset
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This is the most important takeaway. There are days where you will do nothing, and that is okay. There are weekends where you spend all your time out with friends, have a little too much fun, and lose sight of school priorities. Don’t make it a habit, but know that it’s okay. Every time you do poorly on an assignment, you cannot dwell on it because then you will let it affect everything else you have to do. Give yourself some time to feel sorry for yourself, and then you need to get back up and keep going. Mistakes are okay, but giving up is not. I know it’s a cliche but I think we forget about it a lot. It’s necessary when learning about how to be productive to make mistakes and figure out how to learn from them.