Academics Going to College

Time Management Skills For A Successful College Life

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Written by CB Experts

Hitting the college campus for the very first time can be exciting and overwhelming all at once. Fulfilling the many new responsibilities that are coming your way will take patience and persistence. Following are a few time management tips that will help you get started.

Purchase a Calendar

Getting organized is an essential part of managing your time properly. You have to know where you are required to be, what you must have with you when arriving and when important assignments are due. The best calendar designs will provide sufficient room for leaving yourself descriptive notes. Make sure to always write everything down in one central place so that you do not have to refer to different planners or calendars in order to find out where you are going.

Avoid Procrastination

You are probably juggling more homework and studying than you are used to. Rather than pushing things to the side, try to get them done as early as possible, even when you have several weeks before things must be handed in. If you wind up overwhelmed and find yourself scrambling to finish papers at the last minute, you will at least have a workable first draft stashed in your study area.

Establish Your Priorities

The freedom that comes with college life can be overwhelming. It can take a few months or even a full year to adapt to not having a strict curfew or needing to constantly check in with your parents. Those who abuse this responsibility are destined to pay the price. Thus, you have to take some time to establish what is truly important to you in college. Although the idea of having a thriving social life might seem like an attractive one, you should keep your personal goals foremost in mind when planning and managing your schedule. You do not need to go to college to make friends. Now is the time to make the best of the academic opportunities college makes available to you. If you find that you keep putting your friends before your studies, you may want to take a short break and re-enroll when you are ready to make the proper commitments.

Schedule Some Down Days

Every student should have some time to relax, and this is not time for doing laundry, cleaning your room or organizing your notes. Constantly applying yourself to your studies can have very detrimental results if you never make time to unwind. This is especially true when mid-terms and finals start rolling around and the pressure is extreme. If you manage your time well throughout the school year, you will not have to spend long nights cramming with everyone else. You can simply review what you have long been studying and make sure that you get sufficient sleep for feeling refreshed, alert and absolutely capable when it is time to take these all-important exams. Just be sure that you work hard enough as you go along so that a down day does not hurt you!

Remember, transitioning to college life is hard.  Organizing your time and your responsibilities will help you to find the best ways for getting everything done. Once you have it all down pat, you can enjoy a healthy social life, good grades and extra-curricular activities with no problems.

Mariah Coney – Guest Writer for CollegeBasics.com

About the author

CB Experts

Content created by retired College Admissions consultants.