Students’ Time Management Strategies

One of the most valuable things to any student is time.

The struggle to find a balance between getting good grades, joining extra-curricular activities, staying active, holding a part-time job, having a social life, and still having time left over to enjoy personal pleasures such as social media or Netflix can seem impossible.

We all wish we could fit in just one more thing, just one more person. Sadly, we’re usually unable to do so, either due to lack of time or simply mismanaging our schedules.

That’s why time management is extremely important for students — not only will you be successful and happy in the pursuit of your goals, but you’ll keep your sanity too!

Effective time management is all about achieving the right balance between your homework, university/college life, and your free time. As a student, organizing your days will eliminate stress and ensure that you are productive. The general time management tips for students, such as sleeping well, scheduling, and prioritizing, are some important tips that can help students in the long run. A more strategic approach is required to optimize the time a student has in a day.

Time management for students (and everyone else) is about making your day purposeful. It is about taking control of the time you have and optimizing it for focus, productivity, and above all, balance. Before we list out the time management tips for students, it is crucial for students to understand why time management is important.

All of us should make the most of the limited amount of time we have in a day. It is very easy to get wrapped up in a fury of various activities and accomplish less. Managing time effectively enables students to become more confident, and organized, and learn more efficiently. Effective time management skills are particularly essential for high school students, as they have to deal with more subjects, tests, assignments, and extracurriculars. Time management techniques can help students be on track and cope with the stress of added responsibilities.

Seminars, classes, and workshops may take up a chunk of your day, but how one schedules their own time makes all the difference. It is essential to master your schedule.

A daily schedule template helps you manage and control your time each day. It will enable you to stay organized and focus on what matters most and even help you overcome procrastination. The method that most successful people from Elon Musk to Bill Gates use is “time blocking”. Time blocking is creating a template for how you intend to spend every minute of your day. Students should therefore follow this method to manage their time more fruitfully.

Between social media, cell phones, and friends, there are so many activities that can distract students from their school work. When it is time to get down to doing school work, students need to turn off their cell phones and sign out of social media accounts. Any amount of time that is devoted to school work must be television and cell phone free!

It may be tempting for students to feel that they can multitask when their schedule is jam-packed. But the more one tries to do it at once, the longer each thing takes. Instead, studies have found that deeply focusing on one task at a time can be around 500% more productive.

Take more breaks to manage your productivity over time. But when exactly is the right time to take a break? Sleep researcher Nathaniel Kleitman states, “our minds naturally crave breaks after every 90 minutes of intense work. Even if you do not have a timer going, your body will let you know that you need a break by turning sleepy, fidgeting, hungry, or losing focus”. When you begin to feel this way, you know it is time to take a break.

Remote learning gives you the flexibility to choose where and when you study. This flexibility can be a great time-saving advantage, reducing commute times and social interruptions, but staying focused and productive at home can also be a challenge.

To improve your time management skills when learning remotely, make sure that you create an encouraging study environment at home. This means finding a quiet place where you can focus without any distractions.

Many universities offer resources to help students save time and learn at their own pace, such as online lectures, tutorials, and discussion forums. Utilise these tools which often provide step-by-step instructions on how to complete tasks, which can save you from having to figure things out on your own.

Students must master how to effectively manage their time, especially in today’s fast world.

However, this isn’t always the case, as most students procrastinate and use most of their time doing other tasks and distracting activities.

This eventually leads to them scrambling when their school work deadline is due.

The good news is that time management can be learned just like any other skill.

To successfully manage your time as a student, you need to balance your school work, school life, personal life, and free time. Besides, time management and organization go hand in hand, as you have to organize your day to manage your time effectively.