BACK TO SCHOOL : THE IMPORTANCE OF TIME MANAGEMENT

A few tips on how not to get overwhelmed and doing what needs to get done

It’s that time of year again, and all you freshmen about to enter your first year in college are probably feeling one of two things: either you are looking forward to the new adventures and all the exciting things that await you at your new campus, or you are looking at all the possible troubles and tribulations you will need to hurdle as the next chapter of your life of academic torture begins.  

If you belong to the former then we salute you, believe us when we say college life is everything you’re expecting it to be and more.  But if you happen to belong to the latter, well… don’t fret we’re here to tell you that it is far from the end of the world.  College life is not the doom and gloom that you may think it is and if you can remain calm and objective about all the curve balls it throws at you (and believe us: it will), you can navigate though it with relative and surprising ease.  Which is why we’ve come up with a few tips and pointers that offer proper and efficient time management to help you on you’re way.

Having said that, efficient time management is about maximizing productivity while reducing stress, so first things first: learn to prioritize.  Like we said, as you start to get busy with college, college itself is getting busy with the first curveballs it’ll start throwing at you.  So you need to do yourself a favor and learn to distinguish what tasks are urgent and important from the things that are not so urgent or important and eliminate those if you can.  

Once you’ve figured that out, however, go ahead and start on the urgent tasks first.  Then schedule the important but not urgent tasks next.  And while that’s going on figure out what tasks are urgent but not important and delegate those if possible.  This frees up your time and helps you focus on higher-priority items.  Which leads us to: setting smart goals.  As you go about prioritizing tasks, you also need to ensure that the goals you set in accomplishing those tasks are not only specific and measureable, but achievable as well.  Breaking down larger goals into smaller, actionable steps also makes them more manageable.

Another good technique is time blocking: set specific blocks of time to focus on a particular task.  Sending emails, for example: set a dedicated time from 10:30-11:30 AM only then switch to another task.  While on the subject, you can also group similar tasks together to increase efficiency.  For example, respond to all emails at once, rather than throughout the day.  This is called “task batching” and reduces context switching, which can be a major time waster.  Also, if a task takes two minutes or less do it immediately instead of scheduling it for later.  This prevents small tasks from piling up.

Other good habits to adopt are to use a daily or weekly to-do list and cross off completed tasks to maintain a sense of progress.  Also, before ending your day, plan the following day.  This will allow you to start your workday with a clear agenda.  Further, track how you spend your time for a week, analyzing the results can help to identify inefficiencies and target areas for improvement.  Learn how to say “no.”  This prevents overcommitment and allows you to set better schedules for yourself.  

Last but not least, learn to limit distractions.  There’s nothing more counterproductive than allowing yourself to indulge on things like social media or other distractions.  To counter this, create a focused work environment by silencing phone notifications and closing unnecessary browser tabs.  Some people even use noise-cancelling headphones or similar devices to block noise that can lead to distractions.

At the end of the day, however, how you choose to accomplish a task is really up to you.  But by following any (or all) of the strategies above you can learn to work more effectively, avoid burnout, and maintain a better work-life balance.  A win, win scenario that will work even after you graduate from college!