On any given day, most college students have a million things to do. You must prioritize your tasks to get them done on time. Assuming your goal is to graduate on time and with good grades, here is how you should prioritize your time in college. The way you organize your tasks may look different based on your needs and your ultimate goals; but all high priority tasks should have a direct impact on your main goal.

1.     High Priority tasks are the ones directly related to your success. These tasks are usually highly scheduled and cannot be moved in your schedule. These could be tasks like attending class, scholarship requirements, extracurricular commitments, and your job.
2.     Medium Priority tasks are those that will help you be successful but are more flexible in scheduling. Studying, meetings, club events, and volunteer work are examples of important tasks that can be moved around.
3.     Low Priority tasks are those things that you should do, but don’t need to do. Unfortunately, this can often include group outings and socialization events.
4.     Preferential Tasks are the ones you want to do but have no real impact toward your goal. Going out with friends, seeing movies, self-care time, etc. Though these tasks don’t help you move toward your goal, they are still super important for your mental health. Try to schedule at least 30 minutes of preferential activities every day.

It’s okay to say no.

There are only 24 hours in the day. Sometimes, you will have to say no to things to ensure that you’re spending your time wisely. Usually the things you must decline are the fun ones, so it’s easy to feel like college is all work and no play. The best way to avoid this is to use the 80/20 rule. About 80% of your time should be spent on important tasks, and 20% should be spent on leisure time

There’s an adage that says; “An ounce of preparation is worth a pound of cure.” That is the perfect way to think about scheduling and time-saving tips! Putting the time and effort up front to prepare for your day or week will save you so much time in the long run. These time-saving tips will help you save time and work more effectively.

Understanding How You Use Your Time

1. Make an outline of how you make use of your time. This will help you recognize the pattern such as time spent in activities not related to school and the time spent on your normal activities.
2. When you have accurately recognized the pattern of how you are spending your time, it is time to find out how many hours you need to study weekly. Take into consideration how many classes you are attending, class difficulty and how many hours the classes usually take. Basically, you need to spend more time on difficult classes followed by the moderately difficult and lastly the easy classes.
3. Make a time table. It should fit the kind of personality you have. You need the time of your classes, work (if you have), time for meal and meal preparation, etc. Create your schedule based on what works for you.
4. Prioritize. Socializing is important, but studying is even more important. If you turn down 1 in 5 social activities, you can use the gained time to drastically improve your academic skills. Remember college is only supposed to be four years so if you get through it quicker you have more time for life.
5. Relax. Placing too much stress on yourself sets you up for failure in dealing with difficult tasks. Nobody said achieving goals is easy.

Time-Saving Tips that Work

• Wake up early. This sounds awful, yes, and it is at first. But those few extra minutes in the morning can help you prepare for your whole day. Review your schedule for the day, pack your bags with everything you might need, answer important emails, and get to class on time. It’s much better than waking up late, rushing through your morning routine, forgetting things in your room, and having to rush back to retrieve them between classes.
• Prepare your clothes at night. If you are attending a school that doesn’t wear uniforms, you should plan what you should wear in the morning. This way, you save time going to school instead of ravaging through your closet or end up wearing you are not comfortable with.
• Prepare meals or snacks. If you pack your snacks and prepare them at home, you don’t need to waste time waiting in line to get your food in a restaurant. Some people prepare several days’ worth of food at once so that they can grab it as they head out the door.
• Schedule your research day and avoid going to the library unnecessarily. Fit the research day into your weekly schedule and don’t leave the library unless you managed to get all info you need.
• Schedule a time to read and reply to emails. Don’t leave anything sitting in your inbox. Sort out the emails into categories or folders. If the message needs more time before replying, leave it on the to-do folder. Check out the Inbox Zero Method to stay on top of your inbox.
• Multitasking is deadly (and rarely effective). Avoid this practice if you can.

Procrastination

• Recognize the pattern of procrastination. Since it is a habit, you must be able to recognize when it is happening. No one can do this for you and there is no easy way to do this than becoming conscious of your own habits. Who knows what you will discover in the process?
• Reward yourself for every project or assignment accomplished. There must be some form of redundancy in your life especially in college. Break this redundant pattern by rewarding yourself to do something different as your prize for completing a task.
• Try peer pressure. No, this is not the same as what you’re imagining right now. It simply means you need someone to always check up on how you’re doing. Allow them to punish you and be serious with it otherwise this will not work.
• Identify the sorts of punishment or consequences you will receive if you don’t do the task apart from grades or teacher’s reprimand. It should be grave enough to make you feel pressured. This will stimulate your mind in some way.

Cell phone apps have come a long way in the past few years. There are so many free and educational apps on the market now that it can be hard to determine which ones are worth a download (and your ever-decreasing storage space). This list of educational apps includes some that your professors might also be using, like iTunes U. What would you add to this list?

SpeechNotes

Though it’s only for Android, SpeechNotes is an elevated speech-to-text app that makes taking notes in class way easier. Now that Dragon Naturally Speaking is no longer free, SpeechNotes is a great alternative for those of us who like to dictate our homework while we do more interesting things, like cooking… Or puzzles.

Dropbox

Much of college is dedicated to working on larger projects, and often that means teaming up with other people. Dropbox makes group work a breeze by allowing you to share documents on the cloud and choose who gets access to what. It’s also nice for when you somehow forgot to turn in that paper and can show your professor that you really are sending it while you’re standing in front of them instead of cheating and adding a few final touches.

Evernote

For college students who do like to take notes or documenting things, Evernote is essential. It lets you record lectures, jot down information, take photos, store documents, and even clip websites for research purposes. But the best part is that you can keep all of this information in a single, easy to find location so that when you’re studying for your essay on Chaucer or your Bio midterm, you can just access that folder and everything will be there waiting for you.

EasyBib

Yet another app by the awesome team over Chegg, EasyBib is an app that helps you generate super bibliographies super quickly. Their website is easy to use, and the app is available for Android and iOS. The best feature is that you are able to choose from MLA8, MLA7, APA, or Chicago formats.

iTunes U

iTunes U serves a dual purpose. It allows users to access tons of free education content, and you and your professors can use it to view and submit assignments, join group discussions, and view grades.

We all know the drill – head straight from class to work in a restaurant or shop then go home and shower left with just little time to prepare for the next day’s examination. Finding the perfect work life balance as a college student can seem impossible. How do you stay sane in this kind of routine?

It’s tough, that’s for sure.

College is the stage of learning how to do a balancing act, especially when you are working your way to finish school. How will you deal with situation such as this without losing yourself?

Work Life Balance for College Students

1. Organize

List down all assignments, work schedules and socialization you wish to attend. With all of the planner, bullet journal, and app options out there; you really have no excuse for not staying organized.

2. Prioritize

When you create a task list, be sure to prioritize items. To help you with this, make sure you consider what happens tomorrow or in the future. What are the consequences of your decisions and priorities?

3. Treat Yo Self

Tom Haverford and Donna Meagle knew what was up when they shared their timeless words of wisdom on on Parks & Rec. “Treat. Yo. Self.” Enjoying leisure time on a regular basis is not only your right – it’s totally necessary. You’ll burn out quickly if you forget to make time for yourself to enjoy the little things.

4. Stay healthy

Getting enough sleep, exercising and most of all eating healthy are greatest practices for you to stay alert and ready for the tough days ahead. It prevents you from getting sick and it can combat stress. No matter what, your body is still your biggest investment.

The mere fact that you’re taking down notes means you wanted to retain the information you wrote down. With that said, you should know exactly what you need to write down otherwise you’ll end up with too much garbage in the information you tried to acquire.

• Identify what’s new to you. There is no point writing down something that you already know. Why will you write down the information you’ve known from the heart?
• Determine whether your professor will most likely use the information later. Focus on things that directly demonstrate the lesson you’re studying including pertinent names, places and dates.
• Tricky information. We are well aware that our professors always try to trigger our logical mind by setting out traps and tricky questions in their examination. More often than not, the answers to these traps are given out during their lectures – not in the book. If you are particularly keen about observing such habits then it will be easier for you to crack it down.
• Side comments. Sometimes, side comments are ignored or considered unnecessary. However, most practical questions and answers can be found on side comments whether during lectures or books.
• Doubts. Your doubts and questions are the best source of useful information especially when you are faced with a tough exam ahead. There is not a single student in existence without questions about a certain lesson. If you have doubts, write it down and verify it in your research later on.

There is no easier way to face college than to plunge into it headlong.

Most accomplished and productive people usually have one thing in common which is obsession with completion. When they are faced with projects, it is almost their compulsion to finish the task. If they are faced with a project, they would usually break it into manageable chunks especially when they are organized and systematic.

Some of them usually go for all-nighters especially when the project is too big to finish in a few sittings. But no matter how big or small the project is they usually get it done on time and in a consistent manner. If you want to be like them, it takes self discipline and hard work but you’ll get there.

However, if you focus on completion, you can finish tasks and projects in due time.

•Create your project list

If you have around 10 projects to complete, number them from 1 to 10 with 1 being the most important and 10 the least important. For example, you can put the project with the nearest deadline as the first priority. You should also label each project basing on their completion criteria. The first five on the list should be the go-list while the second half as the hold-list.

•Check your list daily

Make sure that you are making progress by completing small outlined tasks for the day. Your primary goal should be completing the project even if it means giving it a big push.

•Finish and start

Once you have finished one task, you can now start on a new project. Do not repopulate the list without doing the rest of the projects on the list. You can reload once all 10 have been finished.

You might be wondering whether this works and it does. Doing this kind of system teaches you to develop a trait that will help you become an accomplished student.

Doing more and working less is simply hard to implement. How then will you make things work out for you without wasting too much of your time? Below are some tips you can use to start working less and be more productive.

• • Always keep track of how much you are actually getting done in a single day. It is common to feel guilty if you have things you need to do and yet you chose to have a lot of fun. Your current and future output when compared should show some increase. If you keep track of the things you actually did, it is easier for you to be more productive and spare time for some leisure.
  • Avoid doing the same thing in one setting. Put some new experiences in between or discover some new methods of doing things so that you wouldn’t fuel the lazy person in you. You can join organizations, start new hobbies or find new challenges that would fuel your imagination and your mind.
• Know your motivation and keep it. If there are one or two things that can motivate or inspire you to do more, go for it. Not knowing what motivates you in doing something is an easy way to let the boredom creep in. Find a higher purpose why you should attend classes or finish assignments or projects.
• Sit down and focus on one task in one hour and you’ll realize you have done more than you can when you try to do all things at once in an eight our day.

The mere fact that you’re taking down notes means you wanted to retain the information. It’s important to take effective notes, or you’re wasting your time. Notes should be concise, highlight the most important parts of the chapter or lecture, and include references as to why you deemed them important. Too long and you’ll never read them, too short and you won’t remember what you were talking about.

Best Practices for Notetaking

• Identify what’s new to you. There is no point writing down something that you already know. Why will you write down the information you’ve known from the heart?
• Determine whether your professor will most likely use the information later. Focus on things that directly demonstrate the lesson you’re studying including pertinent names, places and dates.
• Tricky information. We all know our professors try to trigger our logical mind by setting out traps and tricky questions in their examination. Often the answers to these traps are given out during their lectures – not in the book. If you are particularly keen about observing such habits then it will be easier for you to crack it down.
• Side comments. Sometimes, side comments are ignored or considered unnecessary. However, most practical questions and answers can be found on side comments whether during lectures or books. Listen to the questions your peers are asking, and the information the professor gives them.
• Doubts. Your doubts and questions are the best source of useful information especially when you are faced with a tough exam ahead. There is not a single student in existence without questions about a certain lesson. If you have doubts, write it down and verify it in your research later.

What You Should Include in Your Notes

• Dates for your notes need to be in chronological order so you can understand the entire event
• Names for you to associate the events or ideas better
• Theories which essentially are the main key points
• Definition of things that is new to you
• Points of arguments and debates such as pros and cons, criticisms of an idea and both sides of the coin.
• Illustrations and exercises

While not technically notes, write down all your questions as they occur to you. This will help you remember to ask the professor and get you the answers you need.

Time management is one of the things that are not taught inside the four corners of a classroom. It is a skill you need to develop so that you become more productive and do many things all at once.

•Always read your emails and don’t leave anything sitting in your inbox. Sort out the emails into categories or folders. If the message needs more time before replying, leave it on the to-do folder and so forth. The point is you need to clear your inbox from clutter.

•Multitasking isn’t always good especially for college students who didn’t grow up in the technology invaded world. Multitasking is deadly if you don’t know how to juggle watching TV, replying to instant messages and doing homework all at once. Try to limit this practice.

•Prioritize the most important thing in your list. The first thing you need to do in the morning before you do anything is to list down the things you need to do whether you do this on your phone, notebook or paper is completely up to you.

•Read your emails daily but do it on schedule. It wouldn’t do you any good if you read emails as soon as it arrives. Even though someone contacted you, this doesn’t mean you have to respond immediately. If you want to be more productive at what you do, focus on the task that you specified on schedule and stick with it.

•Instead of making random notes just about anywhere, take advantage of bookmarking services. This will help you get rid of the clutter.

The best thing about time management is you get to achieve many things in a day without compromising on anything.

Most students worry about making the best out of their semester which is usually gauge by the lessons you have learned throughout. But a more important thing is – how?

Organization This is usually self-explanatory for college students who have a hard time coping with time management and even studying. But here are some practical things you can follow –

•Take notes – “A dull pencil is better than a sharp mind.” This is usually one of the greatest adages that you can follow about studying and learning. There are things that your sharp mind tends to miss later on but when you write everything down on your notebook or post-it papers you enhance your chance at remember it later on.

•Agenda list – It is important that you make a regular weekly list of itinerary. Your agenda should give you sense of direction and purpose making everything better every day.

•Real time inbox – This is a figurative term which simply refers to a permanent place in your room or apartment where you study. This is where you will place all your notes, books and assignment papers.

•Get to know your professors – Search engines usually give you short biography on your teachers. Alternatively and more accurately, you can search about them in your school library. Learn about their research interests and knowledge.

•Study partner/mentor – The secret to success is not about being alone but being able to find someone who can understand your habits and study style.