As a college student myself, I find it hard to find time to balance all the aspects of my life; working out, keeping up with my school work, having a job, spending time with my family, and maintaining a good social life. Trying to balance all these things can become extremely stressful and overwhelming.
Here’s a guide that I use to keep myself from becoming overwhelmed and still finding time for all my priorities:
1.Manage the time you have in a day as best you can
Many of us have so much we want/need to do in a day and all too often it feels like the day is just too short. But, I think I found a way to combat this feeling so that I can make time for everything I want to do. To combat this feeling, I like to split up the time in my day wisely and with intention. At the start of each day, I decide how much time I want to dedicate to each activity for the day and execute it from there.
This can get tricky to explain but here goes. Let’s say you know you have a lot of school work to do so you plan to spend all day completing work and studying, leaving you no time for any other activities/commitments. This would only end up putting you under an immense level of stress.
Instead, what you can try is the approach I like to call “splitting up the time in your day”. For example, you could split up the time in your day and decide you want to spend 2 hours working on work from one class, 1 hour working on work from another class, and 30 minutes working on work from your last class.
These times will vary based on what you see fitting but basically what you want to do is pick a reasonable amount of time to spend working on each subject. By doing this you split your work into sections of time making it more manageable and reasonable for you.
In these time sections, you should work hard and be focused. You get done what you get done and after that you move on.
2.Stick to a daily schedule
You don’t have to be on a strict schedule, especially if you have no commitments, but try to have a rough idea of when you want to do things during your day.
For example, for me I might say I want to get to the gym by 10:00am, start my school work by 1:00pm, then hangout with my friends by 5:00pm. This helps you section out portions of your day for certain activities and helps you from being overwhelmed and not knowing where to start.
3.Find balance in work and enjoyment
Take it from me, trying to spend all your time working, in a go-go-go get it done mindset, will leave you extremely exhausted and burned out.
Once you reach that state of being burned out a few things will happen. 1) you will lose interest in doing anything, 2) you are ineffective and not yourself, and 3) your life becomes unenjoyable.
Now, we have to take a deeper look at this. What good are any of these things? The answer is, none of it is good. Becoming burned out is the last thing you want to happen; it will send you in the opposite direction from where you want to go.
As much as we all want to be successful and productive all the time, we have to keep in mind that our main goal here is just to enjoy life. We have to make each day as enjoyable as possible. So, spend time each day doing something that you enjoy, along with doing your work.
4.Study effectively
Try to find a method of studying that works best for you. There’s so many methods out there and what works for one person may not work for someone else. You should use trial and error to figure out the best method for you but whatever method you choose, you have to make sure it is engaging for you.
Additionally, it is important to take breaks from studying. Trying to study for two hours straight usually won’t do you much good. For me, my brain gets tired and needs a break after 30 minutes to an hour of studying.
So, I take a small 15 minute break doing something that relaxes me giving my brain some time to rest. Then, after the break, I come back much more refreshed and engaged.
5. Spread your work load out as much as possible
Although sometimes it gets the best of us, avoid procrastinating as often as you can. As soon as I know of an upcoming exam, I start studying for it that day. Why? because its all about the repetition.
So, I spread out my studying over as many days as possible (but no more than a week as this can become excessive). If I want to spend a total of three hours studying for an exam, it’s no good to spend three hours studying the day before. I find it way more productive, effective, and enjoyable to study 30 minutes a day in the six days leading up to the exam.
Yes, life can be hard an overwhelming, especially right now. But breath, you got this! Give things time to work out and give these tips that I like to use a try. They’ve helped me so hopefully they can help you.