“The most efficient way to live reasonably is every morning to make a plan of one’s day and every night to examine the results obtained.” Alexis Carrel
Are you a full-time or part-time student? Have you ever faced time management challenges?
What measures you can take to manage your time efficiently and increase productivity?
Being able to manage your time effectively will allow you to get more done faster, which in turn, will allow you to have enough time for socializing and relaxing. Having control over your academic or personal life will make you more productive and confident. Here are a few tips to improve your Time management skills.
1. Your Best Time For Higher Productivity
Do you perform at your best in the morning or in the evening? If you are not sure about your best times, you should experiment to find out your better-performing times. You can then use that time to study hard concepts or do difficult projects. It will increase your productivity.
2. Discipline Yourself To Concentrate On One Task
Whenever possible, focus on one task at a time, and once you start one, complete it before tackling another. When you switch from one task to another, you lose momentum and are shifting your focus and energy. You may lose time in transition; hence it will impact your productivity in a negative way.
Several studies say multitasking is ineffective. You do not get more done in less time. But what happens is you switch back and forth between tasks thinking you will accomplish more in less time. As a result, you lose more time and become less productive.
3.Choose A Comfortable Study Area To Save Start-Up Time
You should find a quiet, well-lit, and distraction-free study area and use it exclusively for studying. Your brain starts getting used to it after a few days and it reduces the initialization time. With regular use, you will become more efficient at studying. Saving initialization time will be factored in enhancing your productivity.
4. Get Regular Sleep And Eat Healthy Food
Sleep well and eat healthy on a regular basis, and you will be more alert during waking hours, and therefore, more productive. Thus, you can make the most of your time.
5. Set Clear Priorities.
Organize your day or days beforehand. Make a daily to-do list. Before you begin, determine the most important item, and execute it first. This will determine the success of your day.
6.Increase Your Productivity By Respecting Your Study Time
When you are studying, do not allow yourself to be distracted by anything, including your mobile devices and social media. If your mind wanders, make a note of it. Learning how to meditate can help you retrain your focus. It will allow you to concentrate on your studies better and improve your grades.
7. Reduce Procrastination And Improve Productivity
When was the last time you delayed doing important tasks? Sometimes, for instant gratification, you might have planned to put off an unpleasant task for 5 minutes so you could scroll through your social media pages or watch some YouTube videos. However, you ended up wasting the next 30 minutes on these trivial matters.
Finally, your deadline arrived, and somehow, you managed to complete your important project in a substandard way and submitted it. Later, you were plagued with worry and remorse about the suboptimal quality of your assignments.
How can you save yourself from this situation?
Keep a Journal for delayed activities; write down the explanation for what happened. Did you notice what impulsive thoughts were running through your mind at that time?
What caused you to delay the task? This record will help you learn from your mistakes and prepare you for the future. This exact tracking of how you spend your time will be a pointer for you to enhance your productivity.
8. Make A Calendar For Each Week
Schedule Your Tasks
First Step
- Create a to-do list.
- Determine the priority of each item.
- Estimate how much time is needed for each task.
Second Step Is Schedule It In Your Calendar. Your tasks with a deadline
- Your tasks with a deadline
- Time for contingencies.
- Schedule self-time for relaxation
- Allocate time to do daily routine activities.
- Allot 10-15 minutes extra, for a new task.
- Schedule a time for thinking or planning your next day.
Ensure not to overwhelm yourself by keeping a tight schedule, allocate the tasks evenly throughout the week seeing the deadlines.
9.Get Organized
Being disorganized robs your time. Let us say you take a minute to locate your practice sheets, another 2 minutes to find out a rough draft of your assignment, and again 2 more minutes to find out your textbooks. All these minutes add up to the lost time that could have been used for accomplishing more.
So, how can you make better use of your time by organizing your physical and digital belonging?
Spend 10-15 minutes daily to organize your physical and digital space and declutter once a week.
10. Creating New Habits.
Good habits make your life easier and happier. Building new habits need some effort from you. To make a new habit, allow from 30- 60 days. Be supportive of yourself and graciously allow adequate time to set in this habit of effective time management.
Effective time management is crucial for a happy and harmonious life. As a student, how you use your time decides your academic achievement and success.
Successful time management leads to better performance. Time management helps you to take control of your time and your life.
“The time for action is now. It’s never too late to do something.” Carl Sandburg.
Featured Picture: Photo by Tran Mau Tri Tam on Unsplash
