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These effective time management tips for college students will help you be organized, efficient, and productive in college, no matter what day of the week it is.
Time Management Tips that Really Work
1. Plan the day ahead
The best way to save more time is to plan the day ahead. When you wake up and try to list down the daily tasks, you end up wasting precious hours that you could use to do something productive.
Take a few minutes before you sleep every day and focus on what tasks you finished today and what needs to be done tomorrow. List the tasks down to avoid wasting time the following morning.
2. Keep a to-do list
A to-do list is the best tool to manage your time well. When you keep a to-do list, you know what tasks you have coming up in the day. As a result, you can divide the time accordingly and work on each task with ease.
3. Prioritize important tasks
Often, we lose plenty of time doing insignificant tasks first. This is exactly why you should prioritize important tasks on your to-do list.
You can easily do this by dividing your tasks by importance and amount of time needed. You can start by doing important tasks that take the shortest time to the ones that take the longest.
Finish the day with insignificant tasks that take the longest.
4. Listen to music
Many of us can stay focused better while listening to music. You can choose both upbeat and calming music, depending on your taste.
Many students also listen to binaural beats to stay focused and increase productivity. You can find binaural beats on YouTube and specialized apps.
5. Use the task batching method
Batching tasks of a similar kind can save you a lot of time. Go through your to-do list to identify and bunch similar tasks.
Have to prepare lab reports? Bunch them together. Need to finish assignments? Do them side by side.
Doing the same type of work increases your speed, and you end up saving hours that you can use elsewhere.
6. Set attainable goals
A good way to save time is to set attainable goals.
If you take on more work than you can handle, you will waste a lot of time just by shuffling the tasks around and being demotivated.
On the other hand, if you don’t challenge yourself enough and take up a lower number of tasks, you might waste time that you could have put to use.
7. Don’t multitask
Multitasking might give you the impression that you are getting more things done in a short period of time. However, it hampers your productivity in the long run.
Research has shown that multitasking creates distractions and distracts you in the long run. Focus on one task at a time. Finish it and move on to the next one.
8. Sleep well
A good night’s sleep can help with your time management. How?
Sleeping eight hours every night gives your brain much-needed rest. It also replenishes your energy and helps you retain information better.
If you sleep for six hours at night and nap for the rest of the two hours during the daytime, that is all right. Maintaining a steady sleep schedule is the key here.
9. Avoid distractions
Social media, unnecessary texts, useless chores – these are examples of distractions we generally deal with in the morning.
Your brain is fresh after a good night’s sleep and is ready to learn something new. Checking the social media feed or replying to texts can overwhelm your brain with useless information and distract you from the important tasks.
Avoid these in the first few hours of your day to stay productive and manage time better.
10. Take breaks
You might think that working or studying continuously means you are getting more done, but it can actually exhaust you.
As a result, you end up taking more time for the tasks from midday or late afternoon.
Take measured breaks to let your brain breathe. Use the Pomodoro technique to take sufficient breaks between each period of study or work.
11. Find out your productive hours
Let’s be honest – we all have a block of productive hours when we work most efficiently. To manage your time better, you need to identify your most productive hours and schedule your important tasks during those hours.
Thus, you will undoubtedly get more done and get more done. Memorizing your study materials during your productive hours can be the most beneficial as it will take you a much shorter period to memorize them.
12. Reward yourself
We often mess up our schedule by procrastinating. To keep studying or working, you have to stay motivated. And to stay motivated, you have to find a reward in everything you do.
Surely, finishing an assignment or solving a few math problems won’t bring you instant rewards. You can motivate yourself by promising a chocolate bar or an episode of your favorite show as a reward after each study session to stay motivated and get things done in time.
13. Separate your study room from the bedroom
Want to remember your study materials better? Separate your study area from your bedroom. Your brain has a tendency to associate memories with your location. When you come back to study at the same place every day, you are more likely to remember things.
Similarly, your bed or bedroom is a place to relax. Your brain remains in that mode there and is unable to retain information as effectively.
14. Set a timer
Setting a timer always creates urgency and pushes you to finish your tasks before a given time. If you have too many tasks or homework pending, you can set a timer for each to finish the work faster.
You can also break down the timers for one assignment and take breaks in between.
15. Avoid information overload
Our brain can take in only so much information at a time. You might be tempted to work on many things at a time or listen to multiple recorded lecture sessions in one sitting. But this can cause distraction and can tire out your brain easily.
Checking social media continuously does the same thing to your brain. Even watching TV or YouTube exposes you to too many ads sometimes. To keep your brain healthy and running, avoid taking in too much information that can cause distraction.
You might also like to read:
Best Study Motivation Tips for College Students
100+ Best Summer Bucket List Ideas for College Students
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