Effective Time Management in College

Before coming to college, I had this funny idea in my head that somehow everything was going to work out perfectly: I’d get killer grades, get involved in a whole slew of extracurriculars, and of course, live a ludicrous, raging social life like John Belushi in Animal House. I got so swept up in imagining these great things that I never had the mind to look at things from a realistic perspective. As one might imagine, I was in for quite the surprise. Upon arriving at college, reality – unforgiving as ever she is - slipped on a white glove, powdered the mother up, and slapped me right across the face in an explosion of baby powder and shattered expectations.

The unfortunate reality is that there’s only so much time in the day, and we only have so much energy we’re capable of expending. And, with that being said, I didn’t exactly have the time management skills to efficiently distribute that time and energy. I was faced with the all too common college dilemma: I could either get good grades and achieve academic success, or I could have an awesome social life and make a lot of friends. Having both didn’t seem to be an option; at least, not at first.

But as I became more and more acclimated to college life, and as I began to push myself into more and more extracurriculars, gradually I began to develop some important time management skills that made me realize that I really did have a lot more time on my hands than I had previously thought. Having developed these skills over my years at school, I found that I truly could balance my academics with a healthy and fulfilling social life. Employing effective time management skills is crucial if you want to get the most out of your college experience. Below I will impart a few time management tips and tricks that have helped me get the most out of my college years.

1.       Prioritize

Prioritizing is, in my opinion, one of the most important aspects of successful time management in college. Set your priorities in terms of numerical ranking: academics should come first (you’re paying a lot of money for this, after all), second might be your extracurriculars, and third might be your social life. You can arrange your priorities by whatever’s important to you, but be sure to understand the consequences of doing so. If you prioritize partying over academics, don’t expect to get the best grades.

2.       Identify Your Obligations and Plan Accordingly

After setting your priorities straight, you’ll need to develop an awareness of your obligations and where your free time resides. A lot of websites and magazines will tell you to use a calendar or a planner to schedule out your life and figure out where you have free time; though I see the merits of this and am sure that it works for a lot of people, I personally find it a bit excessive. From week to week, I simply try to remain mindful of where my obligations are: what time I have class, meetings, or any other weekly obligations. From there, I simply work backwards to set aside necessary time to do homework and projects.

Eventually, you’ll gain a sense of when the best time to do work is, and when the best time to exercise or socialize is. Once you’ve figured that out, set yourself a routine and stick with it. It’ll require discipline at first, but once you’ve internalized your routine, it almost becomes second nature. Once you’ve gotten into the swing of things, you can take the remaining time to do whatever you want! Be mindful of when essays, midterms, or other large assignments are due so you can make the appropriate changes to your schedule.

3.       Use your time effectively

So you’ve set your priorities in line and managed to plan or organically develop a sort of schedule: great, you’re on the right track. Now understand that if you don’t utilize your time effectively, you’re not going to have time for much else beyond your top priority. If you take six hours to do an assignment that should take three, you probably won’t get to go out or relax at the end of the night. Make sure you’re getting a decent amount of sleep and eating healthy to keep your brain performing at optimum levels. If your health begins to deteriorate, so too will your energy levels; with your energy levels your social life will also decline. Take good care of yourself, work hard, and remain focused and you’ll find that you can get a lot more done in a given amount of time than you’d previously thought.

4.       Don’t make a habit out of procrastinating

Ah, procrastination. To be quite honest, I still struggle with this demon myself, although the problem has improved over the years. Putting things off until the last minute is an easy habit to fall into, but after taking efforts to alleviate this issue, I can say definitively that it’s usually not worth it. Having to do everything the night before its due is quite stressful, and after doing it for so many weeks, you may begin to find yourself getting burnt out. Minimizing stress is important to utilizing your time efficiently and keeping your energy levels up, so I try to make a habit of at least starting assignments early. After my last class at the end of every week, I try to put at least two hours into reading or studying before I go out. Even if you don’t finish the assignment, having only half of it left to do makes it seem like it goes by so much quicker. As a bonus, more often than not, you end up performing a lot better on the assignment when you don’t do it all in one large block of time.

So there are four tips for managing your time effectively in college. While not a definitive list, one might see a significant improvement in their balance by adhering to these principles. Feel free to drop a comment below, and please subscribe for more content!