Time Management for the New Year

I am a strong believer than any day is a good day to start a new good habit, but January feels like an especially appropriate time to think about improvements you would like to make. Lots of people use the change of year to make resolutions to alter their habits and lots of students use the change of semester to make promises to do better than they did the semester before.

What were some of the bad habits which prevented you from performing at your best last semester? For many students, those bad habits boil down to time management. As you think about improving your time management you might be focused on not procrastinating or on going to class more consistently. Maybe you want to focus on getting your work done earlier or on getting organized so deadlines don’t sneak up on you. Maybe your goal is to be more focused and to avoid distractions so you are more productive. There are so many different ways good time management can amplify the results of your best efforts.

The challenge

Time management challenges are common for adults who have already graduated as well as for students for good reason. Time management is hard! Good time management is in direct opposition to our human nature of chasing the most exciting short-term source of stimulation we can find. You get a much more rewarding hit of dopamine from your brain when you respond to the ding of a notification on your phone than you do when you buckle down and work on the problem set for calculus class for an hour. It takes hard work and good habits to overcome that tendency to pursue short term rewards and replace it with the discipline to work toward your long-term goals instead. If you want to make some new time management habits this term, try the following three tips.

Be aware of what you are really doing with all the minutes in your day

Keep track of what you do with your time for the first week or two of the term. Set an alarm on your phone to go off every 15 minutes. Write down what you were doing for that 15 minutes of your day. You probably did more than one thing in that 15 minute period – try to estimate how much time you spent on each item. You will be shocked at how much time you spend not doing anything worthwhile. No wonder nobody has time to get their work done!

How much time do you spend checking text messages or social media? Does walking or commuting to class or work take up a significant portion of your day? How often do you distract yourself with tasks which aren’t really important? How much time do you spend talking to roommates? Do you spend a lot of time looking for the materials you need to get started with assignments or getting organized? Which activities are draining your time, not adding any value or getting you any closer to your goals, and instead getting in the way of other things which you need to be doing? How much of your time do you spend actually doing the things you need to do?

Once you are aware of what you are actually doing with your time, you can make much more informed decisions about time management moving forward. How much more time would you have to do the things you needed to do if you eliminated or cut back on those time wasters?

Know what’s coming

When you get your syllabi on the first day of class, take an hour to transfer the important deadlines onto one central calendar. It doesn’t matter if the calendar is paper or electronic, but it should be formatted so you can look ahead a few weeks from today and see what’s coming. Try using big colorful font or a red pen for the most important items so they stand out and you can’t possibly miss them. Record events which repeat (classes, practices, work hours etc.) on the same calendar so you have a big picture view of your commitments.

Break it down

Break those big assignments you wrote in the red pen into smaller bite sized tasks which will be easier to tackle. Make sure each task can be done in one sitting and it doesn’t feel too overwhelming. You’ll be less likely to procrastinate if the individual tasks are more approachable and less intimidating.

Assign your own deadlines to those smaller pieces so you stay ahead of schedule and get done before the big deadline. Knowing that a big paper is coming is helpful; having a plan to actually get it done is even more helpful.

Make sure you build in buffer time for things which take longer than expected. A good rule of thumb is to estimate how long you think a task will take and then add 20%. If you get it done in your original estimated time window you now have some free time. Bonus! Remember, the deadline set by your instructor is your worst-case scenario, not your goal.

Learn more

If you want to learn more about time management, check out my Time Management workshop or take it to the next level with my Priorities and Productivity workshop.