8:00-9:30 - Go to the gym

10:00-11:00 - Do machine learning homework

11:30-12:45 - Heat transfer

Before college, the only thing you had on your mind was your prospective social life and the major you planned on pursuing. The first year or so is filled with the intense barrage of both and much, much more. But once the dust settles, you begin to make some realizations. You start thinking about what you want your life to be like after college; you start thinking about whether you made the right choices with your coursework and your activities, all the while schoolwork consistently piles up. You start to make changes and adjust to your schedule as you find your rhythm each semester and you talk to people who have already graduated about your improved time-management skills. They tell you in inexplicably hushed voices that that is the real reason college is so important, as though they're conveying to you a secret that only college graduates have access to.

In fact, coursework aside, I have found that the development and refinement of my time management skills are some of the most valuable takeaways I have from attending college. After genuine research and experimentation, I have found several strategies that I have maintained not only during the school year, but throughout the rest of the year.

Before adopting this new technique, I used to keep all of my due-dates, time management, and schedules in my head. It even became a point of pride. "I don't need a calendar, I can keep it all together in my head." My hubris took its toll on my productivity as I worked too long on some projects, and came too close to some deadlines. As I picked up more and more tasks and my schedule became more unpredictable, I realized I needed to change something; the sheer amount of scheduling information I needed to keep in my head overwhelmed me and prevented me from giving my full attention to any single task.

First I started to put classes and due dates into my schedule. Getting these out of the way made it easier for me to visualize my tasks. Next, I added miscellaneous events that I would otherwise commit to memory. Now I was much more likely to remember events and plan for them. Finally, I took the biggest step of all: I began scheduling everything.

I took time every night and every Sunday to plan every hour of each of my days, even if those hours were listed as rest hours. By organizing my day down to the minute (or rather, the 15 minutes), I realized that I have a lot more time to accomplish more things. Focusing on each task became easier as I no longer needed to expend energy always thinking about what I should be doing next. I could take down difficult things and uninteresting tasks because I knew that as soon as my time on that subject was up, it was time for me to move on. Online calendars allowed me to be more flexible with my schedule so I was able to make changes as needed while prioritizing the things I knew I needed to get done.

With all that being said, time management like this needs a balance and it's not for everyone. I usually take one day out of the week where I don't set a schedule to allow for more spontaneous activity and a relaxed outlook on my schedule. This type of scheduling doesn't suit everyone's productivity mentality either; some people are more likely to succeed using other methods, but I've found that this works very well for me.

The intent of this article was to try to provide a productivity strategy that helps people improve not only their work, but their lives. Less time working could either mean more time working on something else, or more time spent not working at all. No matter how it works for you, I hope it does work in some way.