Guide to Time Management

Time management is one of the three most important things you can do in college if you want to be successful (along with getting to know a professor and SLEEP). With a few exceptions for college athletes or students who work full-time while attending college, your weekly schedule in college will be very different from your weekly schedule in high school.

In high school, you were likely in school for seven to eight hours a day, five days a week. After school, you probably went immediately to sports, theater, music practice, or an after-school job. Almost ten hours a day were likely accounted for from Monday through Friday. Thus, fifty hours a week were essentially scheduled for you. College is the opposite: most students take between fifteen and eighteen hours of class per week. Other than that, your schedule is entirely your own. There are exceptions for students who take part-time jobs or are athletes. But even on-campus jobs allow you to choose a schedule in most cases.

The truth is that college students have a lot of “free” time. If you say this to a college student, you will likely be punched in the face. They are overwhelmed with trying to fit everything in and feel like they are busy all the time. A better way to put it is that college students have a lot of unscheduled time. It is up to you to figure out how to use all that time.

Many students flounder in their time management when they start college. They have relied on their parents, teachers, and coaches to tell them how to spend their hours. On top of that, suddenly their classes have more long-term projects and less daily accountability. College professors hand out a syllabus on day one and expect you to remember when everything is due and figure out how to get it done. There are also so many temptations in college – good temptations most of the time (not always!). There are always new people to meet, new activities to try, and events to attend. Here are some tips for figuring out how to manage your time effectively:

You are a student first. Your academic work comes first. That is not to say you can’t do all the other things, but in terms of scheduling your week, first, figure out when the work will get done. Then, slot in everything else.

Get a planner. Even if you managed your 10000 activities and assignments in your head in high school, you must get a planner or calendar. You can use paper, you can use your phone, an app, whatever works best for you. But you must write everything down.

Put your assignments in your planner. During the first week of school, read all of your syllabi. No one does this - there are Twitter accounts called “Read the Damn Syllabus” run by professors. But you should do it because there are lots of secrets to unlock about your professor’s thinking. In terms of time management, write down every exam and major assignment deadline in your planner right away.

Work backward for assignments. Spend some time thinking about how much preparation or work will be required for each exam or paper. This is a good thing to ask your professors about in the first office hours visit. (See Office Hours link). For example, if you learn that students usually begin reviewing for a midterm one week in advance, find the date of the midterm, back it out one week, and put the start date for your review on your calendar. You can always adjust this date as the semester continues, but you will never wait too long or be surprised by an assignment or exam.

Schedule out your entire day. At least at first, you should schedule your entire day in your planner. Put all of your classes in the calendar (this is where electronic calendars with recurring appointments make life easier). Then figure out what else you want to do: study, go to the gym, attend club meetings, work. Block out those hours every day on a calendar. As you join clubs or participate in activities, you can add those throughout the semester.

Schedule in fun or downtime. Many college students report feeling like they have to always be busy. When people ask how you are in college, the answer is always supposed to be “busy.” Yet if you ask anyone a few years out of college, their best memories come when doing almost nothing. This is when relationships are built. Make sure your week allows for hanging out on the quad, taking a walk, playing pickup basketball, watching a movie with friends, or doing absolutely nothing.

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