One of the many difficult transitions from high school to college is time management. In high school, all schooling happens 8 a.m.-3 p.m. For people doing extracurricular activities, those met in the evenings or right before school. Homework usually isn’t too bad, so you just do it all at the end of the day. This made for many sleepless nights, and many dead spaces between large sets of homework.
College works a good bit differently than high school. You don’t meet all day everyday for class. Some days you might not have a lunch break, while other days you might not have class. College is based around more large assignments rather than a bunch of small assignments, unless you’re in a math class or another homework based class. Tests and papers become the bulk of your grade, and teachers get complete control on how they grade you, which can be good or bad depending on the teacher. All of this being said, the college schedule runs completely differently than scheduling in high school, so here are a few ideas for managing the craziness.
1. Get a calendar whiteboard.
If you’re a visual learner like me, then you like to be able to see right in front of you everything that you have due for the next month so that you can plan ahead. My whiteboard became my lifesaver. It sat on my desk and I kept a picture of it on my phone. If my mom needed to know if I could come home for the weekend or if my friends wanted to go to a party, I could easily check the next month and plan accordingly. Sometimes, I could go to a Thursday night party. However, other times, I had some paper writing to do. This is more or less the large-scale version of a planner. It’s easier to see, and you can overlap months. For example, I adjusted my whiteboard every two weeks, so that I could visualize a month in advance at all times.
2. Get into a routine.
Before scheduling your life away, get into a routine. You have to figure yourself out. Part of your routine could be “nap on Thursday from noon to 2:30.” You have to get to know how you work in this new environment.
Part of getting into a routine is figuring your work/play ratio and how that affects your grades. You might be able to go out every night and still make A’s, which is fine. However, if you find yourself going out every night, and your grades suffer, then you need to reevaluate your routine. You might be able to work for six hours straight without batting an eye; however, if you find yourself wasting your college away, then you may need to reevaluate your routine. Moderation is key.
3. Schedule your week.
This may sound a little too OCD, but you will thank yourself for it later. On Sunday night, schedule how you are going to tackle all of your work, naps, showers and relax time. You will thank yourself for it later. It’s easy to break your week up hourly on a word document and just edit it throughout the week. When your friends ask you when you want to hangout, you can promptly respond with a time. You can adapt your schedule as the week goes on for things you finish early or things you didn’t finish at all.
It is important to wait until you get to know yourself better before starting a schedule. Because if you make a schedule you know you can’t commit to, then you will get in a noncommittal habit, and it’s all a waste. Also, once you get to figure things out, you can learn how much time to assign to a given task. If it only takes your three hours to write a paper: schedule three hours. If it takes more, you can schedule more. This helps when the library and writing center have scheduled closing times. It helps you fit into the confines of your environment. Also, you will have the power to schedule that nap on Tuesdays at noon and really commit to making yourself nocturnal.
4. Create time blocks for life-maintenance and for relaxation.
Need to run to the post office, get coffee and address your crumbling finances with business office? Block all of it together, so that you don’t keep putting off important things. By setting yourself into a time frame, you create a sense of urgency, and are more likely to commit to actually getting things. And since you scheduled a nap later, you won’t ignore it and go take a nap (hopefully). Also, you can block off an entire evening to just hangout with your friends. It will be fine since you will have scheduled away your responsibilities already.
Scheduling also allows you to somewhat regulate your sleep. It gives you more opportunity to tell yourself when you are going to stop working, especially if you are getting ahead of your goal. It gives you a chance to stay on top of things, so that by Thursday you can forsake your schedule because you’ve finished this week’s stuff early.
5. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
While your schedule should push you to be as successful as possible while having as much fun as possible, don’t be afraid to stray from the beaten path. You can skip 30 minutes or an hour of work to go to Whataburger and lose some sleep later on. Schedules need not be a buzzkill. They are there to guide you on your path to success. Getting to know how to function handling a lot of work under strict timelines can be tough, but it will be even more difficult if you push yourself too hard. There is a healthy balance between keeping your life in check, and pushing yourself to a mental breakdown: know that balance.
