Work/Life/Study Balance:– Managing your time is something everyone does automatically but usually it is subconscious as we rush from classes to work to parties and so on. While we are in a rush to experience everything life has to offer we trip ourselves up by planning it poorly. If you are serious about managing your time well you should allocate time to these parts of your life and adjust them as you see fit. When you need to study you should not be partying too much for instance which may seem like common sense but most people just try to estimate the time needed to get it all done. Instead, actually give yourself a certain amount of time for each part of your life adjusted for specific situations and if you go overtime in one make sure you make it up later. Write it down and adhere to it or you will destroy any real structure.

The Boring Stuff:- Life can never be eternally interesting and unfortunately there are a lot of unpleasant and boring tasks that must be done. Too many students put these things off until it is too late like assignments and end up doing poorly. While if you put things off you free up time NOW you force all of your boring bits into one massive session that will lead to more procrastination and lack of motivation. Try to do the unpleasant tasks first, and while everyone tells you to do this it never seems to end up working … so how can we help this?

Time Chunks:– Sitting and doing those boring assignments or projects early may seem daunting but it does not need to be so. By breaking down the large things you just do not want to do into smaller chunks you can complete smaller sections at a time making it seem like less of a task but there is another reason for this also. If you have a stack of smaller tasks you can allocate them in time “chunks” that have a definite start and end time giving you time to move on to other more pleasant tasks or at least alternate between different but equally boring tasks. Sometimes just getting a few boring things done early in a day then moving on to more interesting things can stop the endless pushing back of tasks and they will be done before you know it!

Rewards – All work and no play makes students very dull! Even if you are psyched to get motivated and have good time management do not forget to have fun and give yourself some small rewards for avoiding procrastination and getting things done. You will in fact with good time management skills you will end up with more free time than you have before and you could be stress-free come exam time too!