The stress of post-secondary education more often than not becomes overwhelming which makes it easy for students to fall behind. On top of school work, balancing student jobs, a social life and not to mention personal time, staying on track may seem virtually impossible. There are actually so many ways to budget time in college. Take it from an architecture student who has faced one too many sleepless nights, through these simple 8 tips and tricks, budgeting time in college will be a breeze.
1. Use a Calendar/Date Book
Writing everything down can be a tedious task for sure, but by noting daily, if not weekly and monthly tasks, deadlines and event dates in a calendar or date book you’ll be right on track for success. Creating a daily outline especially is extremely use in terms of budgeting time as a student. By writing down and checking off things you’ve completed and would like to accomplish throughout your day you gain a sense of productivity and will find that simply writing everything down is a neat trip to budget your busy schedule wisely.
2. Mix & Match Tasks
This may sound like an odd trick to budgeting time, but believe me it works! The average adult attention span is no more than 7 seconds, this means after working on a task for an extended period of time we statistically become disinterested and effectively less productive. When you switch up your daily routine by doing bit and pieces of tasks your mind takes a break and becomes more refreshed. For instance, if you have an essay to write and chores to do rather than pumping out the entire essay in one shot, try writing a paragraph or two and then switch it up to wash dishes or even clean your room. Don’t be afraid to stretch your legs for a minute and give your brain a chance to breathe.
3. Prioritize
When things get hectic in college remember to prioritize your tasks. This means that sometimes you may have to skip out on a night out with friends in order to get that final essay done. Remember at the end of the day you’re in college, although parties and game nights are great pastimes keep in mind that school work is your most important priority. As for other extracurriculars like jobs, sports and clubs, it’s up to you to decide which is the most important to you and which to prioritize over the others.
4. Multi-Task
This is an especially important hack to budgeting time. Although many tasks require your full undivided attention, some can be combined to save you some time. Multi-tasking is an important skill to have, especially in college. Remember that you can run a computer update while you clean your room or do yoga while you’re on the phone with your grandma. I find laundry is the best task to multi-task with, since it’s so time consuming yet simple. You can combine it with cooking dinner, prepare the meal while your clothes are washing and then bake that lasagna while you’re putting your clothes out to dry. It’s easy enough, just find two similar tasks and combine them to save yourself some much needed time.
5. Share the Load
Even though the things we take on in our lives are our responsibilities, this fact shouldn’t negate the importance of sharing the workload with those around you. Sure things like assignments and going to the gym can’t be passed along, but when it comes to chores and work, sometimes for the sake of budgeting time it is worthwhile to consider handing some chores off to siblings or roommates or take some shifts off at work and cover their chores and shifts when they need a hand.
6. Eat healthy + frequently
Food often dictates our mood and ability to work productively. When looking to budget time it is important to not only eat frequently but healthy. Fast food may seem like an easy alternative, but the amount of money and time spent getting to and from the take-out place of your choice can easily be replaced by pre-preparing a healthy at home alternative at the start of each week. Save yourself a few hours by cooking meals in bulk. Things like homemade lasagna, chicken pot pie and even quesadillas are all easy recipes that you can make at the start of the week and will last you all through a week of deadlines and due dates.
7. Sleep
Although taking a few hours for to catch a couple z’s may seem time consuming when it’s crunch time and the prospect of finishing assignments and unwritten exams are hanging over you, taking a few hours for a nap or some well deserved sleep is just the way to help you budget time and be more productive. Taking a rest allows your mind to replenish itself and effectively allow you to become more productive afterwards. Whether it’s an hour or two here and there or a full 8 hours, make sure to budget some time to have a well deserved rest.
8. Don’t Take On More Than You Can Handle
The reason we often have a hard time budgeting time is because we bite off more than we can chew. Maybe when you’re signing up for clubs and agreeing to work extra shifts you don’t know exactly what exam season may have in store, but try to keep the future in mind. Exam season is always insane, so rather than agreeing to fill up every waking minute you have with work, extracurriculars, nights out and homework, why not budget in some free time ahead of time in order, because let’s face it, 9 times out of 10 our daily tasks take longer than anticipated and don’t always go as planned.
It may not seem easy, but through these 8 simple tips and trick, budgeting time in college is sure to become a breeze.
