Hello guys, gals, and non-binary pals! I hope you all are doing very well and are having a fantastic beginning to your semester! For this blog post, I’m going to be reflecting upon some of the tools and strategies that I have learned to find balance while in college and manage my time more effectively. These strategies are ones that I have learned through trial and error, and though they work for me, they might not work for you. There is no one way to find balance in your life and figuring this out is an ongoing and personal task. Nevertheless, here are my top three strategies that I use to manage my time while at college!
1. Google Calendar
I like to joke with my friends that if I don’t put something on the Google Calendar, it will never happen, and admittedly, there is a lot of truth to this. I am a very forgetful person, so having everything that I need to do located in one place has been incredibly helpful for me! I have about 5 separate Google Calendars that I consistently use. There is my main one for classes, other events/meetings, and homework assignment due dates I have throughout the semester, and then I have another calendar for scheduling time to eat lunch and dinner and making sure that I have at least one hour of free time per day. I have a separate calendar where I schedule in when I’m going to get homework done and what homework I’m going to work on at that specific time, and another calendar where I write down all of the office hours that professors and TAs hold for the classes that I’m taking. I like to use the office hour calendar to easily check my availability compared to my professors, and it makes it a lot easier for me to remember when office hours are. I personally like to make a habit of going to office hours as often as I can, since I enjoy chatting with my professors, and I tend to have a lot of questions about homework problems. My last calendar is for fun little events that aren’t necessarily things that I need to go to, but things that I would like to try to attend if I have time. This can include performances, dance classes, and various club meetings. I love this system because it helps me manage taking four classes, auditing a fifth class, and working three on-campus jobs while still having time for myself and time to spend with my friends! Each of my days can be long and chaotic, but having this system helps me keep track of everything I need to do and provides stability and structure to my day.
2. Getting Enough Sleep
I know that this one will probably seem a bit cliche but it’s still incredibly important! Last semester, I made a commitment to going to bed at 12:00 AM every day and waking up at 8:00 AM. I also started making myself stop doing work at 11:00 PM every night, which was really difficult at first. After about a week of doing this, I began to feel so much better. I started to feel like I had enough energy to do everything that I needed to do and I was able to work more quickly and efficiently. I understood and remembered what was happening in my classes more consistently and my mood started to improve as well. One of the biggest lessons that I’ve learned through being at college for 3 semesters is that it is more important to take care of your body and your overall well-being than it is for you to get perfect grades. Professors are often very kind and understanding, and if you need an extension, it is so much better to ask for it than to stay up working.
3. Making Time for Friends
I have a bad habit of becoming very focused on the work that I need to get done and forgetting about the people around me. I tried to counteract this during freshman year by spending time with people and putting off school work for later. What I’ve come to realize is that scheduling specific times to hang out with people who you want to spend time with is often much more rewarding than hanging out with them all the time even when you need to get work done. I would often feel like the work was hanging over my head and that I wasn’t able to be fully present with the people around me. To combat this, I’ve started inviting specific friends to eat dinner with me, bake together, watch a TV show, or get coffee and catch up, and then scheduling out my work around that instead of just constantly hanging out with people. I also have specific friends who I enjoy studying with, and for me, having someone around while doing work makes it a lot easier to get it done!