To-do lists get me through my traditional day in college, but there comes a time when some things just don’t fit in a typical day’s to-do list, and get procrastinated. Now that fall break is here, I have been finding myself stuck with a to-do list that I have procrastinated on over the semester. This puts me in a college-student-conflict of deciding to procrastinate more and take advantage of my break or taking advantage of my free time to get things checked off that list. Keep reading for how I am finding the best of both worlds during my fall break and how I plan on using this strategy while school is in session!

This fall break, I was so excited to come home and just take a well-deserved break. However, my haunting to-do list regarding preparing for exams, post-graduation plans, work, research, job shadowing, and more was constantly on my mind. Knowing I had a full week to accomplish my tasks, I soaked in some good family time for the first couple of days of break and got some Christmas shopping done. Then I set a schedule for myself to get this work done.

I thought it would be more break-like for me to just do my work when I felt bored and had nothing else to do. I found this worked well for a while, but a schedule made sure things still got done. I tried making soft deadlines for myself and this helped a lot by ensuring I didn’t overwork one day and had nothing to do the next. It also allowed me to be spontaneous to visit with friends and family while I was home.

Another thing I began doing was prioritizing my to-do list in chunks. This has helped tremendously by making sure I do not feel bad if something does not get done in the time I need it to because I knew I was getting the most important things done. Chunking my workload has allowed me to take breaks and take time off if I need to.

In school, I plan to use this to-do list approach of chunking my list and setting my own deadlines. I envision this will help me ease some stress related to deadlines by breaking up my assignments into pieces and hoping to get them done before the actual deadline!