A Guide To Improving Time Management
Time management is something that we all struggle with. Especially in your upper years of high school, managing your time can seem like a near-impossible one. The transition to college can pose its own challenges. Even when you have more time to study and fewer extracurriculars, it can be easy to fall into procrastination habits. As you progress through your academic career, the stakes and consequences of time management grow. The more that you can practice healthy time management strategies, the more you can set yourself up for academic success.
Know yourself
One of the keys to carving out successful time management strategies is realizing that the same strategies will not work for everyone. It is important to investigate when you are most productive. When do you feel like you have the most energy? If you are a morning person, it will be better for you to work earlier in the day. If you are more productive in the evening, allow yourself to sleep later into the morning to study later.
Another preference to take stock of is whether or not you work best with a consistent or varied schedule. Do you thrive when you repeat the same routine daily? Or do you prefer a schedule that is varied? One way to investigate this is to take note of whether or not your class schedule remains the same each day of the week. Is this something that has helped or hindered your learning?
Create manageable tasks
One of the biggest risks to successful time management strategies is creating tasks that are not achievable. If you block out large chunks of time and assign yourself two hundred pages of history reading, it is only human for your attention to wane. When it comes to study schedules and time management, not completing a task can jeopardize the overall success of your plan. Once you feel incapable of completing a task, it can be easy to fall into a lethargic and defeated psychological atmosphere. By creating more manageable goals, you can ensure that you can achieve them. So much of time management is momentum. Once you have completed a few of the tasks on your list, it becomes exponentially easier to complete the proceeding goals.
Break your reading into smaller, more manageable amounts can shift your momentum. Trying splitting your assignments into time blocks between twenty five and forty minutes. I like to cap reading to twenty pages at a time and writing to either two hundred and fifty words or five hundred words at a time, depending on the speed of your writing.
Don’t hesitate to reward yourself, when you are able to complete your tasks. Whether it is taking a quick walk or eating a good snack, reinforcing healthy study habits can be crucial to entrenching your time management strategies into your daily life. Recharging emotionally and physically are equally important.
Start the week with a schedule
Sunday can be the most important day of the week, when it comes to crafting successful time management strategies. Spending a few hours of your Sunday afternoon, planning the rest of your week, can be imperative for staying on track. Reference the syllabi that your teachers have provided and try to break the assignments into equal parts. Self-honesty is a crucial element in this process. Be honest with yourself about how long assignments are likely to take. The time that you do not spend studying is just as important as the time that you do spend studying, when it comes to time management strategies. Take the time to brainstorm how you will spend your time away from the books. Try to use this time in a way that will recharge you and support your management of your working hours.
Conclusion
Overall, time management strategies are integral to most aspects of your life. The benefits extend far beyond your success as a student. Building habits that promote your own accountability with yourself can not only improve your scholastic achievement but also lead to a more balanced and fulfilling life.
About the Author
