Time Saving Tips for College Students
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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
