6 Strategies to Use Your Time More Effectively

Do you ever feel anxious and overwhelmed by the responsibilities and due dates? Do you ever feel like there is not enough hours in a day to get everything done? Are you sacrificing valuable sleep to finish your assignments? Time management skills will help you to be on top of your due dates and create more room in your schedule to do things you love.

The good news is- Time management is a skill that everyone can learn!

Here are 7 strategies that may help you to get started.

1. Schedule Appropriately

   1. Start with creating a schedule, put in the big things first such as your classes, tutoring, appointments that are mandatory and ongoing. The key is to be specific and write down a time for each of your important tasks rather than "I will get to it later". You can use tools like google calendar or a physical planner to pencil in your schedule (more details in the upcoming blog posts and workshops).

   2. Another tip is to schedule in the important tasks when your energy is the highest. Don't wait to work on your midterm paper late at night if you are a morning person!

2. Get Help from others

   1. Delegate tasks to others whenever possible. Especially if you are working on a group assignments, make sure you communicate your expectations and define the tasks clearly. Struggling with too much reading? Find a few friends to divide the reading with you, have each person take detailed notes to save time for others. No time grocery shopping? How about asking your friend's and family to bring you a few things when they are in the store. As you see, there are many possibilities when it comes to delegating.

3. Avoid Multitasking

   1. Did you know that multitasking reduces your productivity by 40%? Yes! That also include watching TV while doing work. Another interesting fact is that listening to music can sometimes interfere with productivity. Study shows that music with words (even in foreign language) can interfere with the memory consolidation process subconsciously. Next time you study, try listening to instrumental music or white noise backgrounds.

4. Manage Distractions

   1. Our distractions can come in many ways. They can be external or internal. Having a clear and focused mind is equally important as having a a quiet environment for studying. Here are some tips to try: keep a sticky note pad or a piece of paper near you to capture any distracting thoughts that comes up while studying. You can put off these tasks and get back to them later. Also, try turning off your phones notifications even if it's just temporarily or put away your phone all together.

5. Take breaks

   1. Human attention span is limited! Some studies show that average human attention span is only 52 minutes. So if you are studying beyond that, your body is not going to be able to focus and you might find your mind wandering. Next thing you know- you might be "taking a break" and being distracted for way longer than you intend to. So schedule in some breaks! A good way to go about this is to use the pomodoro technique- 25 minutes of working followed by 5 minutes of break.

6. Set Priorities

   1. Urgent things are not always important, important things are not always urgent. Save time on the non-important urgent tasks to work on the not-urgent but important tasks that you are likely going to procrastinate on.

This content is produced by: Jenny Song OTR/L

That's it for today, thanks for reading!

Time management is a skill that needs to be practiced. If you would like more help on time management skills please contact me at jenny.songot@gpmail.org.

You can also schedule an appointment in the link below.

Chat with Me