chris
Okay, so when I was in high school, everybody told me about how I needed to manage my time, and told me how important it was, but no one really explained what it really was or why exactly it was so important. Today, I’d like to try and give you an idea of what time management actually means and how it can be the difference between having time to chill out with your friends and not even having time to sleep for a night or two before a big project is due.
Google Calendar by Spinstah
Why exactly is time management important, and how do I do it? Time management is basically just having a mental plan (and maybe a paper/online schedule that you keep) to make sure you’re doing all the work you need to do each day as well as making time to relax and to keep yourself fresh and energetic. It’s really easy to procrastinate and let work sneak up on you in college and, from my experience, that’s why people tend to do poorly during their freshman year. It’s not because they’re dumb, but because they just haven’t used their time well.
Let’s get started! Here’s a step-by-step process for better managing your time:
- Step 1: Get yourself a calendar. I really like Google Calendar, because you can have it on your phone and your computer. You might not need one forever, but it’s a good way to get started. Plus. you might find that you want to keep using it!
- Step 2: Put your class schedule on it and look at where you have free time. Make sure to set the calendar so that it repeats every week and you can see how your schedule will look when you add a new event. You might have a gap here or there to study or take a break. You want to make sure that you’re not overloading yourself with work and that you’re not taking a 4-hour break if you have stuff to do.
- Step 3: Put all of your assignment deadlines on the calendar. You’ll get all of your deadlines for the rest of the semester on the first day of class. Write them down! If you’re using Google, set an alarm for like two weeks in advance, just in case you need a reminder to start working.
- Step 4: Schedule study time. Give yourself at least an hour or two at a time every day to work on stuff, and more if you’ve got a project coming up. Also schedule relaxing time!
- Step 5: Enjoy a nice glass of water and feel good that you’ve got a cool little calendar set up now.
- Step 6: Add new stuff like student organization meetings and events when you find out about them. Let’s say you want to go to a concert the night before a big project is due; it’s probably good to see it on your calendar and plan to do the work early, so that you don’t have to give up the concert or get a failing grade!
- Step 7: Keep up with the calendar! This is the most important part. If you keep following it every day, you can schedule work time and play time without having to give up either. If you want to have a night out with your friends, just plan to study more the day before. By keeping up with your calendar like this, you’ll get all of your work done and be able to have a social life.
College is an awesome opportunity to see new things and meet new people, but it’s just as important that you get your work done. By having a schedule and managing your time with it, you can do both and have the best time ever!
How do you plan to manage your time in college?
My name is Walter, and I am struggling with online college courses. How should I handle this problem?
I am a 25 year old freshmen student at an online university.
Hi Walter!
Can you tell me in which areas you’re struggling? I’ve found that online classes present some interesting challenges that you don’t normally find in other areas of education. One big problem a lot of students find is that they have trouble connecting to other students as well as their professor.
My first advice for you would be to try to be more active in your discussions with the professor and the other students. Don’t hesitate to contact your prof over the phone and talk to them about your concerns with the class. Also, get some other students’ emails and/or phone numbers and work with them more directly over the subject matter. If you’re living in the same area as other students, you might consider organizing a study-group where all the students can come together to meet up and work on assignments together.
Online classes can be a great opportunity to get your classes done without having to travel to campus, but you have to take up the slack in keeping in touch with people; it’s really easy to feel like you’re all alone in your struggles. That’s never the case, though! There’s always someone who’s ready to help you out!
Let me know if that answer was helpful for you. If you can describe any of your concerns in more detail, I can try to address those as well. Good luck!