Although I am a personal development blogger by profession, I am in no way a mental health professional. See my disclaimer for more info.
Having trouble keeping up with time in school? This post will give you the best tips on how to manage time in college.
Are you having trouble lately keeping up with the fast-paced environment in college?
Trust me; I’ve done my research and I know how overwhelming it can be to deal with the stress that comes with attending college. From parties to classes, there’s so much going on every week. It can be hard to manage your time.
If you find yourself in a rocky boat with time management in your college journey, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, you’ll learn all about how to manage time in college.
This post is all about how to manage time in college.
Importance of time management for students:
So why do you need to manage your time in college, anyway?
When you go to college, you’ve got so many things going on. It’s probably the busiest time period of your life. You have to:
- Go to class
- Study
- Do homework
- Attend club meetings
- Work
- Try to fit in time with your friends, family, and—most importantly—yourself
This is quite a lot for someone who’s still trying to figure out life. It can become stressful at times, especially if you don’t have an effective time management system.
You need a way to manage your time so you can handle all of your responsibilities.
Let me tell you something: The secret to success as a college student is time management.
No matter what your major is, as long as you’re good at managing your time, I’m confident that you will succeed!
How to manage time in college:
1. Know what you can handle
I get it: there are so many options to choose from in terms of clubs, social events, and different classes that you might be interested in.
But, you can only handle so much as one person.
At some point, if you have too much on your plate, you’ll burn out and won’t be able to put much energy into anything.
Then what?
So, when it comes to social events, classes, and things of that nature, you need to mindful of your time and mental health.
If you know that you can only handle 3 classes a day, don’t sign up for 4-5 classes throughout the week. You’re simply setting yourself up for failure — both academically and mentally.
And if you’re not doing well mentally, it’s going to be harder to do well in any other aspect in your life (that’s what I believe, at least).
I know the variety of clubs sounds great and all, but it might be smart to choose only 1-3 clubs to join. If you join more than that, you’ll drive yourself crazy because you’ll have way too many tasks to deal with.
Start easy with 1 and maybe join one or two more if your schedule (and mental health) allows it.
And always remember: if a club or organization becomes draining, you can leave!
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Would you like a free self care activities list?
It’s crucial that you remember to take care of yourself in college. With good mental health, you’ll be on the right path to thrive in all aspects of your life.
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To get the list, simply click here.
2. Create and stick to a routine
Creating (and sticking to) a routine will help you reach success like never before.
With so many tasks to juggle, it’s hard to know when and how to do things.
But, when you have a specific routine, you know exactly when and how to do what you need to do everyday.
How to create a routine
There are a few things you want to remember when creating a routine for time management.
First, make sure that it’s flexible.
You don’t want your routine to be so specific and, well, routine that you can’t change things around when you need to.
Trust me; it’ll stress you out if your routine is too specific.
For example, if you have somewhere in your routine ‘eat breakfast’ but you don’t feel like eating breakfast one morning, that’s fine!
Make room for change in your routine/schedule in case you come across any unexpected events.
Second, make it easy. Your routine shouldn’t consist of 50 different tasks.
That’s not easy or realistic.
The purpose of a routine is to develop a certain kind of lifestyle and to be more organized.
It’s going to be hard to do that if your routine is full of all these tasks to accomplish. So, make it easy by including a realistic number (about 10) of tasks to complete.
Third, make it rewarding.
If you really want to make your routine successful, try adding some sort of reward for completing it.
For example, after you finish your English homework (ideally the last step in your school routine), you can reward yourself by watching the latest episode of your favorite Netflix series.
That way, you have something to look forward to after you finish your routine!
If any of these fundamentals sound familiar, it’s because I read James Clear’s popular self-help book Atomic Habits. It’s all about habit stacking and creating a new, healthy identity.
applying these ideas as a college student
Let’s say this: you have Math, English, Psychology, and Biology courses throughout the week. You also have to attend your student government meetings once per week.
Take this information and fit it into a routine. Break it down into daily tasks that you can check off.
For example:
- Monday
- Attend Math class at 11 AM
- Attend office hours at 12:30 PM
- Complete homework at 6 PM
- Tuesday
- Attend Psych class at 10 AM
- Read 10-15 pages at 6:45 PM
- Wednesday
- Attend English class at 1:15 PM
- Attend Student Gov meeting at 3 PM
- Complete homework at 7 PM
…and so on!
3. Use a planner
If you don’t have a planner, please get one ASAP!
Keeping a planner is essential in managing your time. You’ll be shocked at how much more organized your life will become once you start planning your everyday tasks.
Like a routine, planning your days helps you to know exactly what to do at a specific time. Planning your everyday tasks helps you to keep up with your weekly routine as a busy college student.
There are two methods of planning: digital and physical.
With digital planning, you usually use a software like Notion to plan your daily routine.
Most college students prefer digital planning because their information syncs nicely across all of their devices.
I personally prefer digital planning because I can access my information on my phone, laptop, and my iPad.
Also, I can customize my planner in Notion as much as I want!
That’s probably the BEST part about digital planning. You can shop for all types of templates on Etsy.
From boho to black and white, there’s an aesthetic for just about everyone.
Here’s what my Notion looks like:
My daily Notion! Click here to buy it on Etsy
Check out my FREE daily planner below if you want to try digital planning.
FREE DAILY PLANNER
My planner is the perfect simple, yet effective daily tool to help you keep your daily life in order. It includes a task list, a notes section, and my favorite part: a daily evaluation, where you reflect on your day!
To get the planner, click here now!
If you don’t like the idea of digital planning, you can try physical planning. You might prefer physical planning if you like to write things out (which helps you remember information better).
My favorite entrepreneur, Sophia Lee, has some of the BEST planners (especially for my fellow Type-A’s).
Check out her 2024 College Planner here.
I suggest that you try both planning methods and see which works better for you!
THINK: Do you have a planner? What do you use it for? Tell me in the comments!
4. Learn to say “no”
This one might be hard.
The social environment in college is tempting, especially when procrastination is the enemy and you’d rather hang out with your friends than complete your research paper for English.
But, sometimes you need to reject plans.
You can’t say “yes” to every social event, club, or school organization. If you do, you’ll be spending much more time on things that you could be spending on more important things.
That’s not to say that you should never accept a party invitation! Just be mindful that you have to say “no” every now and then in order to manage your time efficiently.
5. Prioritize what’s important
Think of what is most important to you in college.
It could be:
- maintaining healthy friendships
- getting good grades
- attending club meetings
- building a good reputation
- networking with professors and other students
- taking care of your mental health amidst chaos
Whatever it is, you need to prioritize what is important to you. This will help you manage your time because you’re dedicating more time to this activity more than any other activity.
ELIMINATE THE UNNECESSARY
If there’s something in your life that you can eliminate, you need to do so.
You’re already juggling a million tasks, so you’re only making it harder on yourself by having unnecessary things that aren’t contributing to your success.
This could be an extracurricular you don’t enjoy anymore, a toxic friend you’ve been needing to let go, a bad habit that you need to break — anything.
If it’s not positively impacting you, it’s probably time to let it go so you can focus on what you truly find important.
How to Manage Time in College
Let’s recap.
In this post, we talked about the best time management tips for college students:
- Know what you can handle
- Create (and stick to) an easy, rewarding, flexible routine
- Use a planner to organize your life
- Learn to say “no” sometimes
- Prioritize what’s important (and get rid of the unnecessary things in your life)
If you apply these tips to your academic/personal life, you will have so much more time on your hands to do whatever it is that you need. This could spending time with your friends, becoming the academic weapon that you aspire to be, or anything you want.
Please remember to take time to take care of yourself!
You can’t get through college (or life in general) without taking care of yourself. Check out this post for some FREE self care ideas: 7 Fulfilling Free Self Care Activities for Your Next Self Care Sunday
In the midst of chaos, don’t forget to smile,
DeMarcus – your self care buddy
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This post was all about how to manage time in college.
This set up is so cute!
Thank you so much, Kaliyah! I spent quite some time getting the site ready to relaunch so I’m glad you like how it looks. 🙂