As a university student, you will often find yourself sitting on your bed at midnight thinking about all the things in your reminders section which never make it out of the app. It took me over a year of living from deadline to deadline to realise that time is the one resource which may seem abundant, but is the only thing that does not wait or come back. Being a student is stressful to the T; deadlines, meetings, maintaining a 100% attendance for social events, calling your parents, and the list goes on. There is always so much to do but your plate always seems full. The trick is to know the shortcuts to control your time, instead of letting it control you. While this list is not foolproof, these techniques will help you manage your time y in college effectively.
The Power of Prioritising
A Youtuber will advise you to get yourself a pretty planner and make a To-Do list. It’s great advice… until you buy one, fill it out for three days, and then the planner sits pretty on your desk indefinitely. Instead of noting down everything you need to do, inculcate the habit of prioritizing.
Ankur Warikoo, an ISB graduate, explains the importance of ‘Time as an allocation’ using the Eisenhower Matrix in his course about time management. The Eisenhower Matrix allows you to segregate your tasks based on their urgency and importance, making it much easier for you to decide what needs to be done urgently, and schedule important but less urgent tasks for a later date. This way, you avoid living from deadline to deadline because you understand when to carve out time for things you want to do, and not just need to.
Watch this simple tutorial on how to prepare the matrix, and observe how easy meeting deadlines becomes.
The Pomodoro Method: Because Tomatoes Are Magical
The Pomodoro Method is all about working in short, intense bursts (25 minutes of focus, 5 minutes of existential Instagram scrolling). Why “Pomodoro”? It’s Italian for tomato. Francesco Cirillo developed it in the 1980s using a kitchen timer; but why tomatoes particularly? No idea.
This 4 cycle technique of 25 minutes of productivity followed by 5 minutes of break allows you to get as much work in without losing focus and then re-calibrate your attention span after a 5 minute break. After completing 4 pomodoros, take a longer 30 minute break and repeat. As a college student with 10 different things to tend to, this technique is a life saver during finals or mid-term week. An online Pomodoro Timer can be used to practice this technique for your study sessions.
Is Sleep for the Weak?
A study conducted by Estevan et.al aimed to find the correlation between sleep and academic performance. The results showed that the students who were sleep deprived scored lower than those who were not. While this may seem obvious upon reading, we often don’t practice what we preach.
The chaotic and stressful all-nighters fueled by coffee and self-loathing during finals week is a universal college student experience. While productivity hits different people at different hours of the day, prioritise sleep because the sleep debt never pays itself off, and eventually turns into a habit. Do yourself a favour and lay down, and observe your productivity levels rising the next day.
Make Your Procrastination productive
Can’t bring yourself to write that essay? Clean your room. Don’t want to clean your room? Reorganize your Spotify playlists. Put things away if you’re unable to get to them immediately, and pick up once you complete a small, less important task.Turning your avoidance into tiny wins may be the solution to brain fog. Sure, you’re still procrastinating, but now it’s organized procrastination.
Our Biggest Enemy: FOMO
The Fear Of Missing Out: A dangerous concept which makes it difficult for us to stick to the plan we originally made. Every college student suffers from FOMO, but saying “yes” to everything will turn your schedule into a nightmare. Practice saying “no” in the mirror, then cancel the third social outing this week to finally finish that paper you have been putting aside.
College is all about making memories, but your GPA cannot take care of itself. While having fun and going out is a part of the experience, making time for academics is equally important. Every plan may sound fun, but if your schedule does not allow you to, then learn to say “no”.
Win your Rewards
Positive reinforcement is a tried and tested psychological technique. Promise yourself a reward for surviving the week. Completed your assignment? Treat yourself to overpriced coffee. Survived your group project without losing your sanity? That deserves a nice weekend out with friends. Having some light at the end of the tunnel always makes the journey seem worth it, and makes the process of striking things off your schedule much more fun.
While these tips and tricks can help you manage your time effectively, the truth is that no one really has their life together in college. It is the time you take to figure the rest of your life out, and hopefully create some healthy habits which stick. We all have the same 24 hours, 1440 minutes, or 86400 seconds; what matters is which unit of measurement you choose to focus on.