time strategies

Last semester was the most difficult semester of my college career. On top of an advertising internship, a job filling vending machines, and 15 hours of classes, my capstone course required an extra 15-20 hours a week. I could and did say, repeatedly and with confidence, that my schedule was busy. But now that’s in the bag, and I’m in the process of finishing my last semester, so something went right.

I must be really on top of things, I think to myself as I accidentally fall asleep for two hours in the middle of the day. So, yeah, I could always stand to improve.

This article from Book Launch, with the misleading title “The Myth of ‘Too Busy,’” is about time management and prioritizing. “Stop looking at your schedule and thinking 'I’m too busy.' Instead, look at your schedule and ask yourself, 'How am I prioritizing my time?'” My first thought is: does anyone actually look at their schedule and think “Wow, look at all this time I’m wasting. Here it is, right on my schedule. Look, I even blocked out watching 20 minutes of cat videos before getting out of bed in the morning!"

But it does make a good point. To prioritize your time, “you’ll have to say 'no' to a lot of time-wasting stuff.” Basically, don’t take on too much. That’s a lesson I keep having to relearn.

My to-do list has three categories: school, creative projects, and miscellaneous tasks. My strategy is to keep this list in front of my face as much as possible and get the topmost item finished whenever I have a moment to sit down. After that, I can goof off. I figure that a task is going to take a certain amount of time no matter what, be it an hour or 60 hours, so I might as well get it done before enough time has passed to stress about the deadline. For example, if I set aside two hours on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to work on this class, I can goof off on Thursday and Friday, probably.

Also, for college students especially: remember to set aside time for yourself to decompress. I try to keep a rule requiring me to stop working at 1 AM every night so I don’t hate myself in the morning. Gotta get those cat videos in sometime.

I feel your judgment.

Image: Grey Cat Stare, taken by Steve Hardy. Web Source.