College is all about time management and good habits, here are mine that help me stay on top of things and sane!
- Make a to-do list
- I make a to-do list of absolutely everything I plan on doing in the day (attend lectures, student organization meetings, work on projects, and more). This helps me take a mental note of my time management needs as well as gives me satisfaction that I am being productive even on days where it doesn’t seem like it.
- Do a good deed
- College is stressful for everyone, brighten someone’s day by taking a few minutes out of yours. Compliment someone, send a message to a company about an outstanding worker, or pick up and turn in that ID you saw on the sidewalk.
- Funny story: One of my good deeds this week was to return some gloves to a stranger that I watched drop out of their pocket after they stood up from a bench. They walked just outside of the building I was in so I stepped right outside to return the gloves. Well, I ended up locking myself out of the building because my key card was inside and the stranger I just gave the gloves to hopped on and drove off in a bus, but shortly someone came by and let me in the building (and I got a little laugh out of the situation after I warmed up)!
- Check-in with all of my classes
- I have learned through error that little assignments are easy to miss, and those points add up. Every day I check ICON for every class of mine to see when the next assignment is due.
- This is easy with the CANVAS app on your phone because there is a little icon that is a “to-do list.” This is a compilation of all of your classes and the due dates of upcoming assignments. Checking this helps me make sure I didn’t miss anything important.
- Get or make breakfast and coffee
- Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and a good one helps you get through the day. I always eat a good breakfast and grab or make some coffee before my classes start as an extra push to get through the day.
- Going to get coffee I found is a good way to treat myself after a long, hard, and/or productive day just as much as it is to start a good day!
- Check-in with student organizations
- I hold various student leadership positions around campus, so taking a few minutes each day to check in with my duties helps me avoid some stress of having to set aside an hour or more in one sitting to get various jobs done.
- I always like to respond to emails ASAP (the day they were received) or else I tend to forget about them. If it takes less than five minutes to do, just do it!
- Set out clothes for the next day
- We all have needed some extra sleep or accidentally slept in. Setting out an outfit a day early I found to be a good and easy time saver for those mornings that are a rush and blur.
