TIME MANAGEMENT FOR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: How to manage your time to avoid being overwhelmed?

When facing exams or papers, many students wonder how they can organize themselves to make the best use of their time and, therefore, better academic performance. It is not easy and, in addition, it is necessary to pick up habits that require the student to make an effort on their part.

This post is not a miracle solution. It is a reminder of habits that help manage our time more efficiently. The ideal would be to take advantage of 8 hours sleeping, 8 hours working/studying, and 8 hours of leisure, but we should not start from a utopia. There will be times when this distribution of our time will not occur, but we will try to ensure that the distribution is the most beneficial for the objective we have at that moment.

Here are some tips that we provide and hope will help you organize your study time.

USE A CALENDAR. This advice will have been repeated a million times, and it is basic. It is necessary to write down assignments and exam dates, either digitally or on paper. Having a vision of the days ahead of us until a date is vital for planning. You don’t need to write down exams and due dates. Writing down events that we know we have to attend will give us a more realistic view of our time.

CREATE ROUTINES. It is essential to create habits and routines. Although each of us is more productive at different times, whether in the morning, afternoon, or evening, it is essential to establish when we will start studying and do it every day at the same time. Yes, you read that right, do it every day. A habit needs constancy and effort until the body automates it. In that case, it will no longer be hard to do. Apply this to any area of your life.

AVOID MULTITASKING. Multitasking is excellent because it saves us time. Do you agree with this statement? Of course, not about studying. Multitasking is ideal for routine activities that do not require constant concentration. Still, when it comes to learning, it only makes us not focus on the task or subject on which we have to put all our attention. I will force us to re-read, re-study and waste time.

FROM COMPLEX TO SIMPLE. In relation to the previous one, we must concentrate on the task, but prolonged concentration indeed decreases. That is why I advise you to start with those tasks or subjects that are more complex for you, those that require more effort.

The “SMART” RULE. I imagine you have been told this at some point, but the objectives have to be specific, measurable, agreed upon, realistic, and limited in time. This will help us see results, check that we are achieving them, and get closer to our final goal, which may be something more long-term.

PLAN REST AND LEISURE. As we have already said that concentration is exhausted, we have to stop and plan our breaks. Do something that is “fun” that makes us disconnect and leave the study. It is also necessary to plan the time and duration of the breaks. It is recommended to stop about 10 minutes every 45 or 50 minutes of study. Things you can do to rest: eat something healthy, take a walk around the house.

If you have a lot of tasks to do and you realize that to do them all is to exhaust yourself to the limit. You can ask for help and wonder, “Who can help me write my paper cheap and qualitatively?” Being in good health and full of energy is first and foremost. So please don’t overdo it by piling things on top of yourself.

AVOID INTERRUPTIONS. About the above, if you decide to study at home, make sure that colleagues or family members know that you are studying and cannot interrupt you. Avoid having your cell phone nearby, visible, and within reach. I would even advise you to turn it off. Avoid getting into social networks or favorite pages if you use a computer. And if you study music, the best option I recommend is white music (noise of thunder, rain, etc.) or instrumental music. Avoid songs with lyrics or songs of your known artists that will help you not to focus on the song but on what you are studying.

HAVE AN ADEQUATE AND PREPARED SPACE. The place chosen as a study area is significant because it can be a place that helps us to maintain concentration or, on the contrary, anything that distracts us. There are many people in libraries. Having people around them studying motivates them and keeps their concentration better, but others need to study with no one around. Some people have so many things in their room that learning in it does not help them to concentrate. That is something more personal but it should be a clear, bright and free of distractions space. In this regard, you should prepare everything necessary for the study before starting, since having to get up because we do not have the necessary materials or books will also distract us.

COHERENT DISTRIBUTION. The distribution of the time to study each subject will depend on many factors: difficulty of the subject, taste for it, proximity of the exams, etc.

REVIEW. At this point, I want to give the necessary importance to review. This will help us to consolidate our knowledge and to focus on details that, the first few times, went unnoticed or even correct mistakes.

As you can see, these are tips that we all know at first, but we need to make an effort to internalize them and take them as habits. The willpower and attitude we face it make the study a total success or not. If our attitude is always negative, this effort will be received as something negative and we will not be able to acquire the habit. That is why we recommend that you always have a positive attitude in whatever you face.