How to get enough of time for what you want, need, and have to do?
It’s 2 am now. Your desk is swamped with books, papers, notes. The fifth cup of coffee is ready to be drunk. But there is still no bottom of the essay in sight.
Pretty familiar situation? Are you fed up with missing deadlines and having no free time for things you really enjoy?
Don’t know how to manage all your tasks?
I must warn you, the information you are going to read will change your life. If you are not ready, just close the tab and keep being late for everything.
I’m happy that you’ve decided to act anyway. Go ahead and learn the effective time management life hacks for students.
1. Get Interested in Your Studies
Ask yourself honestly: Why do I study? Probably, your first answer will be to get a good job or earn a lot of money in the future. But you should think outside the box. Job and money are not the ends but are the means to make you happy. What would make you satisfied? Some people would say: creating something great, traveling far away from home, helping people. Think, how these things are related to your study and find your personal motivation.
2. Plan Your Time
Get an organizer and plan all your tasks. It can be a usual notebook or an application for your smartphone. Don’t rely on your memory. You can simply forget to do something, especially, if you have a lot to do in the middle of the day, and you get the task with its deadline. Revise your plan and strike out completed tasks. Take note, you should plan not only your day, but a week, a month, a year, and more extended periods, if possible.
3. Do Important Things First
While planning your day, mark tasks according to their importance and urgency. You can use the following table that will help you to visualize the hierarchy of your tasks:
| Urgent | Not Urgent | |
|---|---|---|
| Important | Tasks in this field are urgent and important | Tasks in this field are urgent but not important |
| Not Important | Tasks in this field are urgent but not important | Tasks in this field are not urgent and not important |
Do important and urgent tasks first. Even if they are frightening and you hate doing them. Believe it, when you do one such thing, you will get inspiration and power for the rest of the day.
4. Start in Advance
Remember, due on Monday doesn’t mean doing it on Monday. The things can go wrong, and you should have some extra time, just in case. Reschedule your day if something unexpected happened and took your time.
5. Prioritize
What is important for you in general? This question can’t be answered quickly. Think very carefully to select and assign priorities. You should realize, what is your number 1 goal and the gap between how much time you want to spend on it and how much you spend in fact.
6. Avoid Time-wasters
There is a large number of things that waste your time. Eliminate or reduce to the minimum such things, as visiting social networking websites, chatting with people you don’t like, watching an advertisement, etc. Some time-wasters can be forced to work for you. For example, when you are waiting for a bus or heading to college, you can listen to some useful podcasts or audiobooks.
7. Don’t Bite More Than One Can Chew
Be realistic: you can’t be in two places at once or write 7000 words a day. Set goals you can manage and don’t overload yourself. You are not a robot, and you can’t work or study 24/7. So allow time in your schedule for social life, hobby, and sleeping, of course. Remember that healthy living requires 7-8 hours of sleeping per day.
8. Use any Help
It can happen that you tumble over oneself. College, work, relationships… When you feel your head can explode any minute, remember about the fifth plan item - your priorities. Delegate a problem-solving assignment or a research work to a paper writing agency and set yourself free for more important things. In order to protect yourself from cheaters, read reviews from real customers first.
9. Praise Yourself
A great final advantage that you will get following your plan may seem too far. But you can make waiting for it more pleasant and encouraging. Develop your own system of rewarding yourself according to your taste and desire. But don’t kid yourself - stick to these rules or your plan fails. You can use the following examples, to begin with:
- If I strike out all the daily plan items, I will eat my favorite cake/ drink a beer.
- If I do the most dreadful but necessary task until 1 pm, I will play computer games for an hour/ chat with my friend.
- If I write an essay before midnight, I will watch an episode of a cool TV show/ go to a party.
Once you have read this article and learned useful tips about time management, you can start implementing them. What should you begin with? Let it be the last item - get a cookie!