I'm no stranger to the art of complaining about having too much to do. Every minute of every day for the last five years has seemed jam-packed with things to get done, which has left me feeling overwhelmed and more than a little stressed out. This is reality for most students from the time they enter high school to the time they graduate college.

This semester is worse than most: I'm working 45 hours a week between my internship and my regular job, I'm writing articles for two different student organizations, and I'm taking 15 credit hours at school. My to-do list only seems to get longer no matter how many things I cross off it.

Yes, it's crazy— but it's also led me to realize that it is 100% possible to be this busy and still be successful if you use your time effectively.

With the onset of the new year, I was forced to take a step back and really look at how I was spending my time. I realized that I was spending way too much time watching Netflix and aimlessly looking at the websites of online clothing stores. When I was working on assignments, I was alternating between spending five minutes working on the assignment and ten minutes watching a YouTube video— and I know I'm not the only one who does that.

Time management is the key to getting everything done. We've all heard it and ignored it a thousand times, I know— but I didn't realize until recently how minor the changes you have to make to start using your time effectively are. You only have to make small changes to start using your time the right way.

The biggest change I made was eliminating "multi-tasking". While working on multiple things at once may work for some people, I have come to realize that I definitely cannot produce my best work unless I am giving the task at hand all of my attention. I don't mean this in absolute terms: For example, I can eat grapes and write this Odyssey article, and I'm pretty confident in my ability to send text messages while listening to a lecture, but I definitely cannot watch Gilmore girls while writing a paper. I learned that I get my work done a lot faster and end up with a lot more free time when I tackle things one at a time.

I've also had to learn to say no to going out. There are times where I just don't have time to go out to dinner with friends or watch TV with my fiance after dinner. It is kind of a bummer to have to cut down on social activities, but I'm a lot less stressed out with ample time to study and finish assignments. It's also important to note that saying no sometimes means being able to say yes other times--effective time management will allow you to have free time, too.

I had to change my habits to keep up with my workload this year, but I'm definitely a lot better off now that I've learned not to waste so much of my time. Trust me, it's a lot more relaxing and enjoyable to have half an hour at the end of the night to watch an episode of Gilmore Girls on Netflix than watching it while trying to write a paper anyway.