Study isn’t meant to be easy, but it’s often very rewarding. The student lifestyle has a reputation of being overwhelming and sometimes chaotic. Therefore an essential skill for academic success is time management – learning how to balance your studies with other aspects of your life and stay on top of work makes a significant difference to your studying experience. You might still experience stress, but with good time management, you’ll undoubtedly be stressing less.
Here are some top tips for managing your time as a student and stressing less.
Make a plan
If you’re at the start of the semester, it’s a good idea to look at your timetable and assignment deadlines and work out how you might balance your workload. Making a to-do list (that also prioritizes the most essential or time-critical tasks) can help prevent feeling overwhelmed by your workload. You can also make a daily checklist that will help you keep track of your tasks and feel very good when you cross them off!
If you’re already into your semester, don’t worry, these ideas are still relevant to you and will help if you’re feeling stressed. You can even review your plan every week or do less frequent reviews with a monthly check-in of your workload to ensure it’s still benefiting you.
Don’t procrastinate or multi-task
Nothing is worse than when you’re putting off a task that needs to be done. It’s best to get it over and done with – you’ll thank yourself later. A good way of getting your focus on is to focus on the one task at hand; don’t try and tackle anything else until you’re finished. Playing some focus music can really help you get into the zone.
Block out distractions
This leads to the next important tip: remove any temptations! Leaving your phone in another room, putting it on silent, and staying off social media will help you stay in a state of deep focus and get your work done.
Reward yourself
Remember to take small breaks when taking on a big task. Do something that will break up the time and make you feel good. Make a coffee, stretch, walk around for a couple of minutes, cuddle your pet, text a friend.
It’s also important to be kind to yourself when studying as a student, especially if you’re taking on a more extensive academic course like a masters, for example, academicpartnerships.uta.edu/
Make time to relax
Finding time to relax and unwind is an integral part of time management. You want to avoid burnout and reduce your stress as much as possible, so make sure you cover the basics by getting plenty of sleep, eating well, and moving your body regularly. Relaxation can look like going to the gym, getting a coffee with a friend, going to a yoga class, or even heading to the cinema in the evening. Whatever makes you feel happy and relaxed and takes you away from your workload for a short time.