I’m going to be honest my life can get super hectic very quickly, and that’s not just because I’m in pharmacy school. Outside of school, I’m also either working or going to rotation, working on this blog that you’re reading right now, or working on a pharmacy-related research project. I don’t say all that to brag, but just to show you that you can reach for the stars if you have great time management. Something that I’ve been learning how to do over the last few years. I’m no master by any means, but I do have a few tricks up my sleeve that I want to share with on how to improve your time management.
Use a planner
A paper planner has literally been my lifesaver for years now, ever since I got my first one in high school. Am I the only one that writes a “To Do List” full of stuff that I’d already done just to strike them out? Something about having to handwrite all of my duties and responsibilities down on paper pushes me to actually finish everything that I need to. The one that I’ve been using for years now is the Erin Condren planner. It holds my entire life from meal prep to class schedule to my fitness journal. I highly recommend it if you’re in the market for a new planner that is completely customizable. (Read my full review here!)
But if you aren’t like me, then try an electronic planner like Google Calendar or Apple Calendar to keep yourself organized while on the go. The electronic calendars allow you to color code your tasks by category or by time frame. It can also send you alerts whenever you need them to remind you about an upcoming obligation or tasks that has to be done today. Do whatever works best for you though, whether it be electronic or paper, and choose something that you can maintain over time.
Learn to say “no”
Unfortunately, you can’t do everything in life and especially in college, you have to prioritize your time, and pick and choose what events that are the most important to you. I know I said it: you are not superwoman (or man) and it’s not possible to do everything all the time. Good time management means that you are able to differentiate what you can actually get done and what is wishfully thinking. Plus, the people that actually care about you will understand that you need a day off to take care of yourself.
The point is that you can’t be super productive and efficient if you’re always tired from running around town chasing events and social gatherings. I promise it’ll be okay if you miss a meeting, party, or social event every now and again.
Plan for free time and adventures
Now at the same time prioritizing your life is key to time management, but so is making time for adventures and hanging out with friends. It’s a work-play balance situation. You can’t always be working, and you can’t always be living it up either. Every week or every month depending on when you plan out your life, carve out some daily or even weekly time to do something that you enjoy. Maybe you do a girls’ night with your besties or maybe you go see that new movie that came out that you’ve been dying to see. Regardless of what you enjoy, make sure you plan for it during your schedule so that you don’t end up burning out on your main gig or side hustle.
Use Sunday as a “Reset” day
Ever since I can remember, my parents have made Sunday our “Reset” day. I would have a full day of chores and preparing for the following week’s adventures. And now as an adult, I keep that same routine going and use Sunday as my planning day and “reset” day. It only takes a few minutes out of my Sunday evening to plan out the following week in my agenda. I usually include things like homework assignments, work schedule, blogging tasks, and any social events that are already planned. I also use Sunday to tackle my weekly chores like washing clothes, vacuuming, sweeping my apartment, and meal prepping for the following week.
For me using Sunday as a relaxing, “get my life together” day really makes for a smoother week. It makes me more relaxed know what my week is going to look like and that I’m prepared for whatever comes my way. I mean, it also just makes me feel good inside so I’m going to keep doing it in my post-grad life too.
Photos by Chris Scott Photography
Work when you work best
This one was a hard one to learn for me because I always thought I worked best in a quite library around other people at night, but I’ve come to learn that I’m actually more productive in an environment that is the exact opposite. I work so much better at home in my PJs in a quite environment. For me, working around other people is super distracting, and I usually end up spending more time people-watching than working on my assignments. But the point is that you have to learn what environment and time works best for you and stick with it. Plan your schedule around the time that you are most productive to get more stuff done on your To-Do list.
Batch your work
This is one trick that I’ve only recently been incorporating into my daily routine, and it’s helped me get so much more stuff done in less time. The secret is batch working! Batch working is when you set aside a time frame to do only one type of project over and over again. So say for me as a blogger, I batch work my writing time so that way I’m writing multiple blog posts in one sitting vs writing one blog post every day for hours on end. Or if I’m working on an assignment at work, I attempt to bunch all of the assignments that are very similar together and complete them all at one time. It’s basically a way for you to work more effectively and to not multitask, which actually makes the project last longer. Batch working allows you to do the same task over and over again, instead of flipping through multiple tasks that are unrelated to each other.
This trick works for a lot of people, not just content creators or business owners, but regular millennials, like me and you. Think about it? Instead of working on homework or reading assignments every week in a panic, pick one day of the week to complete all of your reading assignments for one class in advance. So now instead of winging it week to week, you’ve done all of your work for two months in the span of a day. I’m telling you it really works!
Do you have any special hacks or tricks that you use to improve your time management skills? I’d love to learn a few more to put in my arsenal!
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