How many times have you heard that time is money? It is actually a lot more than that. Finishing your courses successfully, while maintaining social life and having time for extracurriculars can be quite a challenge. However, it may also turn into an enjoyable ride if you manage your time properly.
Before starting
Before you write down a specific schedule or a plan, ask yourself a couple of questions. The more you think about the answers, the more you will get to know your strengths and weaknesses in time planning.
- Do you schedule time for planning every day?
- Do you make a daily to-do-ist, ordered according to priorities and do you stick to it?
- Can you effectively block any disturbances, which may delay your deadlines and tasks?
- When working on tasks, do you pay attention to your performance curve? E.g. are you a morning or evening person?
- Can you also say “NO” to others, when you see that your schedule is tight and you have certain priorities?
Seven tips for better time-management
- Set priorities
- Prepare your daily to-do-list a day ahead
- Break down big goals into smaller, specific steps
- Minimize distractions
- Pay attention to your performance curve and work on your priorities during the peaks
- Important things first
- Learn to say “NO”
How much time do you spend on the important tasks?
Now that we’ve established 7 rules to manage your time effectively, some readers may still wonder how to really start with the time plan. We encourage you to find out how much time you spend doing various things and how much time you can still invest into yourself.
Take a paper and a pen. Put down the number of hours each week has.
168.
Now detract:
- How many hours do you sleep per night? Week?
- How many hours do you spend at the university?
- How many hours do you study at home/in the library?
- Do you have any other things to do? Do you work as well?
- Do you have hobbies? How much time do you spend on them per week?
- How much time do you spend with your family, friends, girlfriend or boyfriend?
- How much time do you spend on other things such as shopping, washing the dishes, etc?
Look at your final number. The time that is left is your free time. It is only up to you how you are going to spend it. According to multiple studies, a person needs about 10 000 hours to master in a field.
What about finding yours and becoming a pro?
Author: Barbora Spacilova
