One of the biggest determinants of success in an individual’s life is time management. This is even more important when I am a student; whether attending online classes or offline. As important as it is, however, time management is not an easy task for a student. It can prove to be a difficult task to create a study-life balance even when the consequences of not mastering this important skill can be devastating. As a student, I have over the years, mastered the art of time management to create a study-life balance through a combination of development of a strategic planner and strict adherence to it. Over the next few paragraphs, I will explore I detail the development and the execution of my planner.
My strategic plan begins at the beginning of the semester. The first step I take is to get all the coursework of my enrolled classes. Understanding the coursework helps me create a planner where I can allocate time for study depending on their respective difficulty. Although there are numerous ways for crafting a planner, I prefer using a diary with a quarterly planner on the first page. The main objective of this step is to prioritize my coursework and rank them in order of their difficulty. This helps me to know where to allocate more time and where to squeeze more free time. The end result is usually an optimized planner for the quarter.
Now that I have my prioritized planner, the next step I take is to work on creating time for other recurring obligations. The important questions I ask myself are: whether I will prepare meals daily or in bulk and store for later. Will my child have sports practice or another extra-curricular activity? If so when? What about dinner meetings or social clubs that I am part of? Will I follow a gym/workout routine? I then schedule time for any of these activities. I as well make sure that I write on a schedule for household chores such as grocery shopping, trash day, laundry, and cleaning. Although it may seem odd to note everything down, it helps me understand when I will have free time for studying. This will also make sure that I schedule a time to do activities like laundry and eventually turn them into a habit. For example, I usually do laundry from seven o’clock to 9 o’clock in the morning every Tuesday and I have turned it into a habit.
Another aspect that I have used to create freer time is to keep track of the important due dates such as paying my bills. I make sure that I take the time to write in any financial obligations as well. Write in any and all bill due dates, paydays, direct deposits, etc. and make sure that they are written in for each date that I know. For example, if I know that my rent is due the first day of every month for the next year, I will go ahead and write it in. Sometimes when I get caught up studying for exams, doing a research project, or writing essays it is easy for these little things to slip my mind. I also like to draw a checkbox next to these obligations so that I can check them off or I simply put a line through them once they are complete so that I know it has been taken care of.
Now that all the recurring scheduled events are in my planner, I take the time to write about any other events that are scheduled. This is important because if I am taking a vacation or going out of town for a wedding, I want to either plan on taking that time off from studying or allocating more time into my study time in the days or weeks leading up to the event. I write in vacations, weddings, holidays, appointments, and any other special event that I know the dates of.
With all of my non-school related scheduling in my planner, it is now time to get down to business. I should have a clear outline of my schedule in front of me. I will take time to look at my program and course outline and gauge what things I might need special planning for or what already has a specified date, such as proctored exams and required webinars. I will schedule any of these things that I can. It is just simply helpful to go ahead and input things into my planner that are only available or are required on specific dates. Looking at my planner, I will start scheduling my study time. This may vary day-to-day and week-to-week, but I find it helpful to schedule as much as possible as far in advance as I can. Maybe I can only do one week at a time, one month, or three months. The important thing is following a schedule so I do not fall behind or lose motivation. I find it best to schedule at least an hour of study time, though I sometimes have days where I can dedicate six or more hours to school work. The important thing is writing it into my planner and committing to the scheduled time. If I write in that I am going to do coursework or study from six o’clock to eight o’clock on Tuesday evening, make sure I do it and don’t just sit down and watch television.
Now that I have my life is scheduled out, I should feel less overwhelmed by the idea of working school into my busy life. Most of us chose self-paced, distance learning because it was the most feasible with our busy lives. Using a planner or calendar and sticking to my schedule as closely as possible helps me keep on track in every aspect of life. Since I follow a schedule I made myself it should not conflict with any other obligations I have. We all have moments where we lose motivation or need a break, and that is okay as long as I am following my schedule and making progress.
