A frequent entry in ‘How to Survive College’ listicles is time management because a college freshman’s concept of time changes. Professors will even bring up time management skills in my classes because the vast majority of my classmates did not do the assigned reading. Good time management skills mean the difference between enjoying your night and staying up late to finish an assignment. I want to share some tips that I have learned during my first year of college that have prevented me from being overwhelmed.
The first tip I want to give you, is that time management is not as hard as some of the listicles and your high school teachers make it out to be.
I would say that time management was harder for me in high school because I had to balance 7 classes that met 4 days a week, and an academically rigorous extracurricular. In college your classes meet on average 2 days a week, and you have longer breaks between each class. Take advantage of those 1 hour, 2 hour, or even 3 hour breaks to get the homework done for the class you just had, and to complete the homework for your classes tomorrow.
When I do homework during my breaks, I do not have to do homework when I get back to my dorm and I can enjoy my night. Additionally, I do not have to stay up late to finish homework and risk going to my morning classes tired and unable to process information. Listicles and high school teachers highlight the long breaks between classes as something that will hurt you, however they can be the best time to get homework done and visit your professor’s office hours.
If you have a reading that is 50 pages or more, do not save it until the day before the next class meeting. Break the reading in halves or thirds depending on how fast you read. I felt a lot less dread about getting the reading done when there were less pages to read. Breaking up the readings also made me more likely to do the reading because I knew I could read the amount of pages I assigned myself. When I set an amount of pages to read per day, I was able to keep up with the reading easily and not risk falling behind.
Coming off of my second point—keep up with the reading for your classes. Poor time management has often left my classmates unable to keep up with the reading. In every class the readings build off of one another, and not keeping up means a confusing day in class when the professor is referencing several readings that you have not read. Secondly, falling behind in the reading also means that you have to read more pages in a shorter amount of time to catch up, and your retention of that information is not going to be as good.
These three tips are skills I have found the most helpful in keeping me on track with my work. High school teachers and listicles try to scare you, however you will find that you actually have more time to do the large assignments that your professors give you. Since you have more time—breaks between classes and less in-class time, you can easily get the assignment done before the next class meeting. You choose to utilize the free time that you have, and by doing so it will make your night less stressful, and allow yourself to get more sleep.