In my experience, the people who excelled the most in college weren’t necessarily the smartest people, but they were the ones who figured out how to manage their time well. There is no perfect method for time management in college, as everyone’s brain works a bit differently. Your first semester is the perfect time to experiment with what does and doesn’t work for you. Below are some time management methods, the situations they might be good for, and why they work.
Tip #1: Set Time Limits on Your Phone
This is probably the most difficult temptation for most of us when in comes to time management in college and in life. The phone is always there. Games, social media, texts pinging, reminders…between things optimized to make us addicted and everything that’s housed within a phone, it’s difficult to put it away. Because of that, this is probably the biggest distraction that we have. There are a few ways to address this.
Get a phone jail.
This might sound funny, and it honestly is, but it’s a great idea. Essentially, it’s a lockbox that you can put your phone in. You set a timer, lock it, and you can’t retrieve your phone until the time is up. This is a great idea to use with the 45/15 method.
Put your phone in another room.
Humans are generally pretty lazy. If your phone is in another room (or even on the other side of the room, honestly), you’ll be less tempted to use it because you’d have to get up. Out of sight, out of mind. Just make sure you put it in a place where you’ll be able to find it again.
Power down your phone.
Sometimes it helps to just shut off your phone. Once again, you have to go through an extra step to access everything on it. An easier alternative is Do Not Disturb, but powering it down works best, as it makes it more difficult to access everything.
Set time limits.
If your phone allows you to set time limits on your apps, use that to your advantage! Usually we spend way more time than we realize going on these apps and wasting our time. Set time limits so that you have no choice but to let it go.
Tip #2: Try the 45/15 Method
This is a fantastic method for studying to avoid burnout and to maximize productivity. If you want to work on time management in college, you need structure. With this method, it’s super simple. All you do is set a timer for 45 minutes and work for that long. Once you hit 45 minutes, you stop what you’re doing and do whatever you want for 15 minutes. Once that 15 minutes is up, you reset the 45 and start again. This method is great because it structures your time well and trains your brain to work productively for a long period of time while knowing that there is a break soon.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be 45/15. It can be shorter–the Pomodoro Method, another name for this technique, suggests doing 25 minutes of work and taking 5 minute breaks. Sometimes, we work for long periods of time without having this break there. This leads to burnout and stress. Other times, we take way too many breaks and don’t work enough. The idea here is to find a balance. Whatever the length of your work time and breaks, make sure to remain consistent and focused.
Tip #3: Rank Things in Terms of Priority
It helps to make a list of everything you need to do and then rank each item in terms of their priority to you. For example, maybe today is the 1st of the month and you have a project due on the 3rd, one on the 15th, and tests on the 5th and 13th. All of this can seem overwhelming when you look at it for the first time. This overwhelming feeling is what does it for most students. They feel as though they won’t be able to accomplish anything. Then, they panic, work on things piecemeal, and end up either working too slow or procrastinating.
In order to address this, it helps to address things in terms of their priority. Priority should be determined by due date of the item, size of the item, difficulty, and interest level. For example, the project due on the 3rd might be a large project, but maybe it’s super easy to you and you actually have interest in it. With that in mind, it probably won’t take so long, and you won’t have to budget as much time for it. If the project on the 15th is difficult, in a subject area that you hate, but a bit of a smaller project, you should still probably budget more time toward it, as it will take you longer. After you’ve considered all of these aspects for each assignment and ranked them with importance, you can get to work. Naturally, you need to consider due dates above all, but by looking ahead and budgeting your time, you will save yourself time and stress in the long run.
Tip #4: Find a Flow (little task->big task or opposite)
Everyone works a little bit differently. Because of that, it helps to figure out what works for you when considering time management in college. Usually, it helps to go in an order of task size. For some people, it’s easiest to find a flow when they complete all of the small tasks first and feel the sense of accomplishment and relief knowing that they have something out of the way. This might look like a worksheet, watching some videos and answering questions, doing a quick summary of text, or taking notes on a reading. After this, you would chip away at bigger projects like essays, research projects, and group work. Alternatively, you could reverse the order and dedicate a certain amount of time to larger projects so that you know you’re knocking the big items out of the way, then fill in the gaps with the smaller items.
It might also help you to schedule certain tasks for certain days of the week. This helps you to create a routine. For example, you can dedicate Mondays and Wednesdays to reading and discussion boards, then do writing assignments on Tuesday and Thursday, everything else on Friday, and study for a certain amount of time throughout the week. Whatever you do here, make sure that you are consistent.
Tip #5: Find a Good Place to Study/Reduce Distractions
Your setting is incredibly important. What works for other people might not work for you, and you’ll figure this out during your first few months. You can ask yourself a few questions:
- Does studying at the desk in your dorm or apartment work for you?
- Is the dorm/apartment quiet enough, or can you put headphones on to focus better?
- Alternatively, do you enjoy the silence and controlled environment of the library?
- Does it help to be blocked from any distractions and to have a place where everyone else is studying as well?
- Would the medium noise level but novel setting of a coffee shop help you instead?
Consider which environments you’re most and least focused in. If you’re not sure, test out a few different places. You can also consider proximity here, as a commute might bite into your time. The point of this is to save time by reducing distractions. Once more, time management in college is about planning ahead and reducing future obstacles. Your place of study greatly contributes to this!
Tip #6: Create a Schedule in Google Calendar to Visualize
Some of us are very visual people. While having some sort of physical calendar or planner definitely is useful, it also helps to have something on your phone. Part of time management in college is knowing how to make your own information more easily available to you. With Google Calendar, you can schedule in your class times, your work times, and any other consistent commitments that you have. Then, you can schedule in your due dates and set reminders, block off time for studying, and plan out when you will work on certain assignments.
This is good because it gives you a clear, color coded visual of how much time you have and how you will use it. You can also set when and how many reminders it sends you, so it will pop up in your phone notifications. If you have trouble staying organized or remembering assignments, this is a fantastic method to use. To learn more about staying organized in college, check out my article here.
Tip #7: Have Rewards Built into Place
Some people are extrinsically motivated, and that’s okay. If time management in college and reducing distractions are hard for you, it might help to have something that you’re working toward. Figure out what might motivate you. Set a specific goal to reach. Make it realistic and appropriate, and make sure that the reward is also appropriate (i.e., don’t buy yourself an iPad for doing a homework assignment). Hold yourself accountable and see what happens. Chances are that you will condition yourself into finding a pattern, and much like you might train your dog with treats, you can wean yourself off of the rewards.
If you want some tips on making a reward system to help with your time management, check out this page.
Tip #8: Be Willing to Adjust if Something Isn’t Working
Finding the right study schedule and habits is a process of trial and error. It’s okay if something doesn’t work the first time. If your circumstances change (i.e., new courseload, new commitments, new living arrangement), your time management methods might need to adjust as well. Just make sure that you have a backup plan and that you are flexible, and everything will be okay.
While it might be pretty obvious when something isn’t working, it helps to have check ins with yourself. Maybe you pull up your grades and look through upcoming assignment every Friday. Use this time to look at the data. Are there still a ton of missing assignments? Has there been incredible progress using one technique? Listen to your gut, look at the data, and start planning accordingly if you need to change.
Tip #9: Be Disciplined
It’s difficult, but time management in college only works well if you find a routine that works for you and stick to it. Just like exercise, it takes consistency and determination to find success. It’s hardest at first, but once you get into a routine, you will thank yourself. So much about your success in college is about building healthy habits. Time management is certainly one of those, and the earlier you start, the more natural it becomes. Even when it’s hard, it’s worth it in the long run to stick to the plan.
Tip #10: Find an Accountability Buddy
Once more, like you might do with exercise or goal setting, it helps to find an accountability. Struggling with time management in college is more common than you might think. Especially at the start of the year or the start of college in general, people struggle to (re)adjust. Between having new classes, dealing with professors, making friends, finding internships or jobs, getting involved in extracurriculars, etc., there’s a lot to balance. Just knowing that someone is in the same boat helps.
With that being said, if one of your friends, roommates, neighbors, or classmates seems like they’re in a similar situation, it doesn’t hurt to casually talk about time management in college. You can ask what they’re doing to manage, how they’re settling in, and what they’re struggling with. If it seems like it could be a good match, you could bring up accountability buddies and have one more thing boosting you up.
A Final Word
Time management in college is never easy. It takes dedication, trial and error, and a lot of patience. However, if you employ these tips, carefully monitor your progress, and do your best, you’re sure to improve your workflow. Are there any tips we missed? Drop them in the comments.
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