College Time Management Tips

These college time management tips boost your time management skills and beat procrastination. Time management for college students helps you to take control and reduce stress.

It's the night before the big exam and you are yet to begin studying.

You have have an assignment due and you can't seem to get started?

College procrastination is a battle that all students wage at one time or another.

Procrastination robs you off your potential and increases stress.

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Overcoming procrastination

I often see students in my classes who leave things to the last moment, waiting for the adrenaline rush of a deadline to motivate them to start their assignment or prepare for their exam.

However, the reality is that the pressure of a deadline results in more college student stress, a poorer quality of academic work, and an ineffective use of your time.

Here are a number of tips for overcoming procrastination.

• Divide and conquer
This is for tasks that seem insurmountable. Those assignments or projects may seem so big that you don’t know where to start.

A good place is to start by breaking the assignment into smaller tasks.

These smaller tasks can be collecting your readings, reading 2 articles a day and making notes, or drafting an introduction.

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Make your tasks into bite-sized pieces and put them into a logical sequence to complete the large task. I highlight the importance of scheduling tasks with this exercise provided by a time management college professor.

• A Pros and Cons List
Draw up a pros and cons list of doing the task.

Often a task that you continually put of has high emotional content for you. By drawing up a pros and cons list you look at this unpleasant task that you have been avoiding in a more objective way.

• Jump In
Take action - even if you spend 5 minutes on the task each day you notice that you are making a change.
• Increase Your Awareness
Often, becoming aware that you are procrastinating can help you to get things done.

By keeping a time management and students log of your time you identify your time-wasters and put in time management strategies to beat procrastination.

Planning your work

College time management is important to balance your hectic schedule.

College is a time in which you have to balance your studies with social activities and probably work commitments.

So it is likely that you feel many different responsibilities that are pulling you in many different directions.

That is why it is important to prioritize your work. This can be done a number of ways.

First I think it is important to get an overall view of your commitments for the semester. Identify your busy periods and upcoming assessments.

From your semester plan develop a weekly plan of your schedule.

I talk more about this and the importance of having student planners to strategically plan your week

At a daily level, often the urgent crowds out the important - which can increase your stress.

Set a high priority for the task that you are continually putting off.

The setting a high priority in your time management students to do list it is difficult to avoid.

Develop good study techniques

Cramming for long sessions each day without regular breaks means that you are likely to get fatigued and perform less that optimally.

Developing proper study techniques maximizes the use of your time at the desk.

• Use variety.
Try to study three different things each day. By changing tasks you renew your energy – if you spend too long on one task you concentration flags.

I talk more about this in these proven study techniques that maximize study performance.

• Work Intensely.
Work intensively for short periods of time.

Have 10 minutes off every hour of study. In that 10 minutes run around and get your body re-invigorated. This keeps your attention high.