There is no arguing that being in college means we are constantly swamped. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; I often feel more productive and better about myself when I am busy. Problem is, not having good time management can leave us feeling stressed. Stress can then make us feel like we are losing control of our lives. Between classes, extra-curricular activities, work and play, we need to find time-saving tricks to tackle our chaotic schedule.
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Here are a few scheduling tips to help you take back your time:
Make Use of Wasted Time
Surprisingly, we waste many hours in a day. All of the little chunks of time that we spend doing nothing— our commute to and from school, surfing the internet— really add up. Try to make these moments productive, so that you can have free time later, or turn them into enjoyable personal time for you.
Modify TV Time
We have all done it: we start watching one episode of “The Office” and hours later, and we are watching the whole season. It is easy to zone out, but if TV or Netflix are keeping you from getting things done then try limiting yourself to one show per day. It will force you to be honest about your television addiction.
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Quit Mindlessly Surfing the Web
One of my biggest faults is wasting endless hours surfing the Internet to avoid any real work I may have. Why do my econ homework when I can look at cute pictures of kittens in teacups? Most of us will begin innocently by going online to check something for school but one thing leads to another and we will end up browsing for an additional 30 minutes. We need to start keeping ourselves in check, monitor how much time we spend on certain sites. Even block distracting sites if we can’t resist.
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Halt the Talker
We all love our good pal that has a lot to say, but when your friend goes on and on it can completely sap your day. We need to let our friends know that we care about them and what they have to say but that we also have important tasks to tackle.
Create a Quitting Time
A lot of us may stay late at the library or procrastinate until the last minute because we don’t give ourselves a deadline to wrap things up. Set time aside each day to work on a paper so that you don’t have to finish it all in one sitting. Procrastination can leave us feeling stressed and doesn’t allow us to do our best work. Also, knowing that you have to leave the library, or quit working at a certain time can force you to be more strategic with how you spend your time.
What’s the Problem?
It may be boring, but tracking your activities and writing them down can be an efficient way to figure out what is sucking up your time. Finding out what you do for each day can help you locate the pointless stuff that takes up a bunch of your time. Once you find out what the problems are you can easily eliminate them from your everyday schedule to help you get ahead.
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