Summer may be officially over, but you can think of time management as your sunscreen. You must apply it so you don’t get burned. You have to see the people who didn’t apply it to fully appreciate how important it is. That being said, you must manage your time in college in order to avoid that sunburn. Here are some tips to stay fully protected from those awful rays.
1. Map and Conquer:
We get access to all of our assignments and their due dates on the first day of class, which is way before they are due. Tip? Print out a list of the assignments, following their due dates (each class on their own page) and tape them to your wall. Putting your assignments in a visible place, right in front of your face, makes you more aware of the deadlines and helps you plan how far ahead you need can take care of them. Need more reminding? Invest in a planner. Write down all of your assignments for the semester and take it week by week. Make a note to yourself for when an assignment is coming up in a few days that way you give yourself time to complete it. You do not want to get overwhelmed with a bunch of assignments all in one night that are due the very next day.
2. Do Your Homework On Time:
As you complete homework assignments for certain classes, keep track of how long they usually take to complete. Teachers typically give out the same sort of homework assignments throughout their course, not including big projects or papers. By figuring out how long it takes to complete a subject’s homework, you are planning accordingly and giving yourself enough time to do your work, while still being able to watch your favorite TV show before it comes on or not staying up all hours of the night to do so. It takes an hour to do your CJ homework? Guess you better get started an hour before American Horror Story comes on.
3. Are You an Early Bird or Night Owl?
Determine when’s the best time to complete work and study. When are you most focused? The early bird gets the worm doesn’t it? Although that may be true in some case, here that doesn’t apply. Some students just wake up naturally motivated, and Kudos to you, however others find it easier to study at night. That is up to you to decide. Find out what time works best for you. Maybe you’ll find a group of night owls who you can study with before that big test the following day. Keep in mind this Rule of Thumb: 1 hour lecture = 2 hour study session. In order to efficiently go over the material in class and grasp a full understanding, you should study for 2 hours, not what you learned in the most recent class but in all the classes.
4. Block Your Classes:
Schedule your classes back to back as you can. Scattering your classes for the day around may seem like a good plan that way you have gaps in the day, but actually it really isn’t. When we have gaps in our schedule it is easy to say “oh I’m going to study during that time” or “I’m going to get started on that paper” when really you’re more likely going to spend that time relaxing, getting something to eat, or for students that are residents, go back to the dorms to get in a quick nap. It is known that 50 minute breaks between classes would more than often be spent on social media or on a phone call then actually doing some work. Blocking your classes is also really smart for those students who have a job. If you take care of all of your classes for the day back to back, then you will open up bigger blocks in your schedule to take on a shift while stilling having time to get off from work early and get some work done without say up extra late.
5. Go to all of Your Classes
Going to class is the most time efficient thing you can do. In fact, it is pretty stupid to miss class if it is not for a significant reason. When missing a class, it will take more time going over and learning the material on your own and trying to catch up than it will if you just went to class. On top of that, teaching the material to yourself, or learning from another student who just learned it is not an effective way to grasp the material than it would be to learn from a professor.
The point is, do not fall behind in college or it will be significantly hard and time consuming to catch up, especially if you make a habit of being lazy. Laziness or even disorganization can result in you getting that nasty and embarrassing sunburn everyone can see.