Time Management Tips for Student Overachievers

Whether you’re a full-time or part-time student, school can become an overload. It’s an obligation that must be considered although you may have other things going on in life. Full-time moms, people who work a full-time job, or women who do both. Having a consistent schedule and sticking to it will make your load easier.

What are some good ways to manage my time you ask? Here are some of my favorite time management tips whenever I feel like I am losing track of time…

Create a schedule

When you write everything you have to complete on what day, and stick to that schedule, there’s a greater percentage you’ll get everything done. You’d be surprised at how organized and on track you’d be if you just wrote out a daily, weekly, or even monthly schedule. You will be ahead of the curve. Use planners, calendars, or digital tools to schedule tasks, assignments, and appointments. Allocate time blocks for different school work, family, self-care, and leisure activities.

Prioritization

One of the main keys to good time management is prioritizing the things that are more important than the other things. When writing out your schedule, be sure to write the tasks/assignments that are more urgent or time-consuming first. So that you can knock those out of the way and make room for the not-so-urgent tasks that aren’t as time-consuming.

Learn to say “no”

One of the most important things about time management is that you have to learn how to set boundaries. I talk about the importance of setting boundaries a lot in my posts, but it’s what helps gain control of your own life. If you know you’d be over-extending yourself by being available, then you must learn to say no. There is no proper time management without setting limits on your time.

Limit distractions

If you know your phone is a distraction, put it on Do Not Disturb, or put it in another room. If you know you can’t multitask, turn the TV off until you complete your assignments. If you know you can’t work effectively with your friends around, separate yourself and work on your own. This is one of the most effective time management tips because this is what helps maintain 100% focus.

Give yourself an early deadline

Sometimes we can see a deadline for later on and we push our tasks on the to-do list for later on. Work on finishing an assignment earlier than the deadline. Once this becomes a habit, you will be ahead of your own time. An early deadline creates a sense of urgency, that you have to finish by that deadline. When in reality, you completed it before the actual deadline.

Do tasks in micro-doses

This helps me out when I have a lot to do all at once. I break my tasks down little by little and work on them day by day. These little steps will help with progress and will even get your task completed earlier than intended.

Working on one task for a certain amount of time and then another task for a certain amount of time is more efficient to me, then trying to complete everything is a smaller window of time.

By implementing these simple yet effective time management tips, busy students can balance their responsibilities and make the most of their time. It may take a little discipline but with will-power its achievable.

Thanks for reading!