6 Effective Time Management Strategies for Students
- Adilla
- 7 days ago
- 5 min read
If you’ve found your way here, it’s understandable.
You might be feeling overwhelmed trying to juggle your classes, assignments, playtime, social life, and everything else that can make student life challenging. Remember, you’re not alone in this struggle, and it’s possible to manage what’s important to you.
So, let’s start now to build a good habit for your future!
Table of Contents
6 Effective Strategies of Time Management for Students
Managing time for students can look a little different. Not only would you have to consider the time to do your assignments and studies for exams.
Here are 6 strategies we recommend for organising your time better:
Strategy #1: Create and Use a Calendar System
If you feel like you need to plan your overall semester, you can utilise the Calendar system. This is where you add the class, deadlines, and appointments all on a calendar. Whether it's digital or physical is up to you!
Try to block out your study time and rest time in advance to ease the mental load for your future self. Remember to make it as flexible as possible, but not so flexible that you would skip your rest or study time.
Strategy #2: Build a Weekly Routine
As you look at your class schedule, block out the times that you won’t be available in advance, including travel or transportation as well, to prevent planning mishaps. Then, build a routine around your classes on weekdays first before deciding on your weekend.
Keep in mind that planning everything is good, but check in with yourself if you can commit the energy to execute your plans. For example, study sessions post classes or in the early mornings.
To decide, check your energy levels on a day-to-day basis. Are you more active early in the day or late in the evening?
Analysing your energy level can help set a realistic routine for you without burning yourself out in the long run or skipping study sessions more often than you should.
Strategy #3: Be Good at Daily Planning
Planning doesn’t have to be done at the start of the week or the day before. Rather, it can be done daily as long as you have a list of tasks you would want to implement in a given week.
If you notice certain tasks might take longer to start, try out some productivity methods like Getting Things Done (GTD).
As the name suggests, the GTD planning method helps you get started on any tasks, even if you struggle with a mental block when executing them.
Strategy #4: Learn to Prioritise Better with the Eisenhower Matrix
If you find that all assignments seem to need your attention at the same time, try out the Eisenhower Matrix.
Don’t let those fancy words scare you. It's actually a proven productivity tool where you sort them into 4 different categories based on their urgency.
With a clear divide of what you should prioritise, you can delegate your time and assignments better each week or even month.
Strategy #5: Time Blocking
A common strategy for even people working. In a way, your class is structured in a time-block way, too. So, by doing how your classes do it, you can block your rest study time, rest time and even times where you can have fun and play.
If you’re the type who struggles to pause, finding ways to stop feeling guilty when you rest is a good start.
Strategy #6: Use Technology to Help
Before you start organising your time, you can consider what tools you can use to help.
Would you prefer access on your phone or just your laptop, or both?
This will minimise the list of tools you can use. Moreover, time management apps have different features and aesthetics. For example:
Habitica: For students who love to gamify their daily schedule, earning rewards as they complete them.
Remember The Milk: A simple to-do list with a time feature that connects with every device and email.
The Sectograph visual time manager: For students who prefer a visual representation of an analogue clock to estimate their tasks and time.
However, be careful with how you utilise these apps to not get distracted in the process.
What To Avoid When Managing Time
When you plan out your time, there are certain things you need to avoid doing to care for your physical and mental energy.
Overcommitment
Try not to put too much on your plate in a single day. It’s good that you feel like you’re able to do a lot in a day. However, in the long run, this could burn you out.
Perfectionism
Don’t aim to plan every single minute of your day. Perfecting your schedule isn’t a realistic expectation. Practise a healthy habit of ‘good enough’ in your activities.
Too Rigid
You may notice in this article that there is an emphasis on keeping your schedules flexible. Having a rigid schedule would actually stress you out more than help you. So please find the balance that works with you.
Procrastination
If you have a habit of procrastinating on schedules that you create, figure out why you delay your tasks.
Procrastination is rarely about laziness. It could be an underlying fear of failure or a mental block that you’re going through.
Multitasking
It’s tempting to juggle multiple tasks or assignments in one go to save time. However, this isn’t productive and doesn’t even produce good-quality work.
When your attention is pulled in multiple directions, it disturbs the flow state that helps you stay locked in on your work.
Key Takeaways
Building habits to manage your time during your student years can help build a good foundation when you start working.
It may not be easy at first as you look for strategies that could work for you.
But with trial and error, you’ll find a suitable method to boost your productivity and your overall student life.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why is it important to build time management habits during your school years?
It is important to build a time management habit during your school years. Why? Not only will it enhance your academics, but it will also help to cultivate essential skills for future success. Moreover, building time management habits since you’re in school will be the stepping stone to becoming more organised when you enter the working world.
What do I do when I have friends or classmates who push me to follow their own schedule?
This can be a tough situation to be in. What you can do with friends or classmates who push you to follow their schedule is let them know why it’s important to you that you follow your schedule.
Alternatively, you can also discuss with them a compromise, like a study session, before hanging out or let them know you would be leaving early to focus on your assignments.
What are other time management tips that could work for students?
Other time management tips for students that you can do are setting a timer on your apps to reduce distractions. You can also try setting up your time management settings on your smartphone to avoid spending too much time on social media.
Author Bio
With a background in Arts English, Adilla has been a casual writer for various hobbies, like parodies of animated shows and plots for board games. She loves to read anything and everything from fantasy stories to articles on tips and tricks. Now an advocate for mental health and effective project management for the creative industry. Currently, Adilla resides in Malaysia and is a creative writer at TESSR. To know more about her, check out her LinkedIn.
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