Best Time Management Skills Every Student Should Practice

Best Time Management Skills

Time management is all about doing the right thing at the right time. As a student in university or college, the skill of time management cannot be over stressed as you happen to be the CEO of your time. Time is the most important resource in life anywhere and anytime, everyone has got the same cut of time daily but the differentiator is the wisdom with which it is spent. Another peculiar thing with time is the way it flies, it just keeps moving whether you are moving or not, hence the need to seize time early enough and move in the right direction irrespective of whether you’re talking of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or years. Good time management practices will help you to always make hay while the sun shines and to avoid time being against you. Below are good ways for you as a student to effectively manage your time.

Set Goals with Deadlines

Don’t push this idea aside, because goals are tools you can use to measure your advancement in time, and can serve as motivating factors for you to push yourself to work  even when you don’t feel like, especially when you set goals with deadlines putting time into consideration. When you set goals per time, you know what activities your time should be invested in; when you do it with a deadline, you are able to monitor your timeline, evaluate and adjust your activities where and when necessary.

Mark and Do Away with Distractions

One big enemy of time management, even when you have goals on ground, is distraction. There are many distractions on campus and you might be attracted to a number of them or may be into them already. If you want to manage your time better, you have to look into your daily schedule and identify the activities that are unnecessary which you involve in. You discover you can convert such times to do more profitable things to enhance your academic performance by studying more, reading more or even resting instead of needless engagements.

Prioritize Your Activities

Putting all your time into an activity that is not urgent nor important is a waste of time. Set your priorities right as regard the activities you push into your time. Do the most urgent and important ones first, then go on like that on your priority scale until you have leisure time to do the least important activities.

Start with the Right Task

If you start your day with the wrong activity, it might impact on your motivation level to do other things and make you less productive that day. Arrange your tasks in such a way that activities that are important but easier to complete and that will boost your motivation are the ones you start with, so from there you can be better motivated to face more difficult tasks.

Wake Up Early Enough

By waking up early, you are able to get more time to kick-start your day. Activities that would have taken time, you can complete some of them at the earlier hours before other students begin to wake up. By the time others are in the rush to prepare for classes and meet up with some things, you’ll have more time on your hands to move on to other activities. The secret to this is to understand yourself. If eating heavy dinner affects your waking up the next day, then eat light at night and sleep early to help you rise early.

Avoid Procrastination

Pushing tasks and activities to another time, just because you don’t feel like at the moment can make you very poor at managing time. If you want to be a good time manager, practice promptness, respond to assignments, preparation for test, exams, group discussions as fast as possible. Once you’ve completed a task today, it doesn’t get piled up to make tomorrow’s workload heavier, you are able to manage your time better the next day, because you didn’t procrastinate today.

Delegate When Possible or Ask for Help

There may be extracurricular tasks which you probably can delegate, use that option when possible. You can as well ask for help from friends with some of your tasks so as to better handle the workload.

Use a To-Do Lists and a Journal

A To-Do Lists is a tool you can use daily to keep track of all the tasks you have for the day. Make a habit of writing down all you need to do for the day every morning before setting out or every night against the next day. It will help you while you’re at one task to remind you of other things you can do. Remember to check your To-Do Lists. Also keep a journal to write down every assignment, work or task you’re given in class immediately you are given, so you don’t forget to attend to them as and when due.

Have a Timetable

An effective way to keep yourself on track is by having a time table, that is, a schedule of your activities for every day, attached to a particular time, written out and can be pasted on your wall in your hostel or room. A time table is useless if you don’t follow it, so, make it feasible enough and be deliberate in following it.

Use Your Phone as Your PA

While there are many time-wasting things that you could use your phone for, it is wise to use it to help you manage your time. You have to be deliberate about this enough. You can set alarms, reminders and use calendar. You can even have your To-Do Lists on your phone. You can find a way of freezing social media apps while you are using your phone for a serious task so as not to be distracted.

Use a Reward Method

While you set goals with time frame for yourself, in order to further get motivated to do the right thing at the right time, have the plan to reward yourself one way or the other when you complete tasks. 

Use Breaks

Do not just go on a working spree without adding to your plan the time for rest. If you keep working without taking necessary break, you could stress yourself up and not be able to attend to some other tasks at the right time. Set the right time for your rest and ensure resting time is resting time. Don’t convert it for another task, good breaks will position you to handle next tasks effectively.

Focus on One Thing at a Time

While multi-tasking may seem the way to go, it may not be the best all the time. Focus on doing one task at a time and completing it within the time frame set for it. Even when you don’t complete the task you would have gone a tangible extent in attending to it.

Practice These Strategies

Now that you have gone through these helpful strategies on time management, ensure you put them to work. Make use of as many as you can apply effectively for yourself and be deliberate about making the strategies work for you.