<p>I've been horrible at time management during my high school year; any advice anyone?</p>
<p>The first thing I would say is definitely keep a planner … or scheduler or whatever and write down all your assignments that are due because you cant really get a sense of organization just by having separate syllabuses in front of you</p>
<p>and having a whiteboard stuck to the wall of your desk helps too</p>
<p>I do make use of the planners, but i am having a hard time following them through.</p>
<p>Then you just have to learn to discipline yourself … for me I learned the hard way in high school I took up varsity sports year round and had a lot of other commitments like dancing, music, etc. so my grades suffered as a result because when I got home all I wanted to do was relax , but now when it comes to focusing on studies etc. [because im basically involved even more than high school here in college] all I think about is, “if i dont make time to study, my GPA is gona be wack”</p>
<p>of course I’d want my GPA to be high so i can better my chances at landing that first high paying job, or getting into a good grad school so yeah …</p>
<p>basically what im saying is that it all comes down to your mentality … if you really want to succeed then you will eventually do what needs to be done in order to take the steps to achieve whatever it is you want , I dont want to sound all philosophical here but seriously, just put your mind to it and tell yourself that you HAVE to get this work done before going out partying, or going out doing something else … </p>
<p>itll go a long way Trust me im only a freshman in college but I was involved like CRAZY this semester, musical performances, dance/model shows, intramural sports, and of course PARTYING … but still finished with a 3.88 because when it came time to do work , i dragged myself to the library and stayed there … THATS ANOTHER THING , if your horrible with time management i would say go to the library and log your ass out of facebook / twitter / whatever distracts you and do work , because studying in the dorm can be pretty unproductive at times</p>
<p>Make a schedule of when you plan to do specific parts of your assignment. Like if you have a paper due on Friday, you might have a calender where on Sunday you make an outline of what you plan to talk about in the paper in certain paragraphs, then Monday – work on page 1 and 2 of the paper, Tuesday – page 3 and 4; Wednesday – page 5 and begin revising, then Thursday– finish revising the paper. </p>
<p>By spreading out your work for a certain assignment, it helps so you can avoid pulling all nighters. Also, try and set a specific time for each night of the week where you can spend just 1 hour in the library – like maybe around 6pm after you eat dinner and before you head out to any club meetings (if you decide to participate in any clubs). You always have something to do. Even if you don’t have homework, you’ll have something that you need to review from class.</p>
<p>@ Mushaboom: ahhhhh I’ve been a procrastinator all my life; I guess now it’s the time to change!</p>
<p>^ Don’t worry. That was me up until freshman year. Major procrastination. I’ve gotten better with doing assignments ahead of time now, especially papers. I hate pulling all nighters, so I spread my workload out. I mean, I do stay up once in a while, but not every week like I did first semester of freshman year. More like once a month.</p>
<p>Wake up early. Don’t sleep in too much, even if your schedule allows it. If you take a shower right away you won’t even feel tired anymore, and then you can use the time you would have wasted sleeping doing whatever you want - getting work done or goofing around.</p>
<p>I second panther’s suggestion on waking up early instead of 10AM. If you have any free time during the day in between classes then do some HW or studying that needs to be done before the weekend. This will enable you to have fun during weeknights and weekends as well. If you don’t take advantage of the free time then your just cutting yourself short the social time you could’ve had.</p>
<p>Do a little bit of work each day. Seriously, this will help you out so much in terms of getting assignments done on time. </p>
<p>Say you get the assignment for a paper due in 3 weeks. Start brainstorming that day and do a little research online. I find that working in small increments makes work so much less painful. I know I hate staying up the night before with a case of Red Bull cramming for something so this strategy works way better for me.</p>
<p>-Write everything you want/need to do down
-prioritize these tasks and finish accordingly with short breaks
-make sure to develope a work then play mentality
-don’t neglect sleep, or short naps- keeps you functioning better
-early starts of the day usually help me to be more productive
-as well as scheduling in excercise( running swimming lifting weights, w/e you feel fits you)
-and of fitting in social/fun things keeps you happier and helps keep your sanity which will have a positive effect on your energy etc</p>
<p>try not to think of college and college GPA as a big scary thing to manage. Often, people procrastinate because they want to avoid the problem, which they see it as daunting and difficult. By thinking of things one assignment at a time, one test at a time, and one project at a time, you can actually do it. Think of the here and now and what you have to do.</p>
<p>Even better is to think of breaking that test/project/problem set down into smaller pieces and tackling them if you still get walled in by procrastination. When its smaller and easier, it becomes easier to think about and better to do it.</p>
<p>Something that was helpful for me was telling myself I was going to do academic stuff from 9-4 every day. no more, no less. If I had breaks from class, I would use that class time to get other work done, go over notes, review for an upcoming exam, start a long-term project, etc. After 4, it was time for all the other things I needed to get done: errands, exercise, hanging out with friends, sports, whatever. This helps you avoid staying up unnecessarily late due to procrastination, and it also helps you be productive in those awkward gaps between classes.</p>
<p>Something else I would suggest is getting on a normal sleep schedule. 12-8 worked well for me. If you go to bed too late, you will be constantly fatigued, and napping during the day only screws up your sleep schedule more.</p>
<p>I am thinking about scheduling my college classes so that they’re from 8 to 3, I feel like since I’ve been used to this schedule for 12 years, I should keep relying on it. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Do not schedule 8 o’clocks unless you have to. You may go to bed early, but others who live around you will not and it will stress you out. Your classes for college will be spaced out a bit more than high school.</p>
<p>^^ So seconded. Try going to two 8a.m. labs - 90% of the time I was dead tired from my roommates being up late at night. They gave a really nice attempt though…</p>
<p>I thought I could handle 8am classes, but no. I was lucky that the teacher took attendance or else I would have skipped a couple of classes.</p>
<p>I used to take morning classes because I didn’t want any classes past 5pm, but at this point, I don’t care anymore. I’m taking a 7pm class because I don’t feel like waking up at 8am on T/W/Th.</p>
<p>I had problems with the guys next door who found it appropriate to get drunk and blast Guitar Hero and singing “Livin’ on a Prayer” at 2am every other Tuesday night. I had a freakin’ 8:40am class too. I’m glad I didn’t have to live in that dorm the second half of the semester -_-</p>
<p>Haha after reading these replies I just went and changed my 8 a.m. class (Tuesday and Thursday) to 1 p.m. classes. Now my earliest class is physics on Monday and Friday at 9 a.m.</p>
<p>I think everyone knows how to manage time but whether they do that efficiently or not comes down to motivation/distractions. I have very few distractions, I don’t hang out with friends a lot or play games or watch tv so it is easier for me to get assignments done early. Sometimes I just think of it as a challenge: if I can get an assignment done early then I feel mentally stronger and it raises my self esteem.</p>
<p>One more question: Should I leave any free times between each classes?</p>