So now that you’re in college, what kind of college student will you
be? Are you going to be one of the straight A, almost 4.0 GPA students?
Or will you fool around and be a George Bush Jr. type of college
student with a C- average?
Of course, this is entirely up to you. Sure, your new professors might
have some influence on the final result, but in the end, it really is
your decision.
What’s the Difference?
What makes an A student and what makes a C- student? One word:
organization. If you can just manage to pick up a few basic time and
resource management skills, you’ll be able to utilize them in order to
give that GPA a sizable boost.
Take a look around you at your peers. Some of them will be compulsively
writing things down in day planners or on their sidekicks – these are
the ones that will look harried, rushed, crazed and compulsive. Other
students will be socializing and frittering about, happy as clams and
just as relaxed (clams are easy-going, right?) – these people will look
happy and well adjusted.
In the span of a few weeks, however, your relaxed, clam-like friends
will be harried and crazed, and with good cause, while your harried and
crazed friends will be on top of their busy schedules. The difference?
Again, organization.
So Much To Do, So Little Time!
This is a popular complaint among college students, partly caused by
the sense of independence the undergraduate atmosphere creates. No
longer do you have Mom and Dad running after you to do your homework or
study for that test or fill up the tank with gas if you drive it to
Empty. Not only are you fully responsible for your academic life (no
more report cards being mailed home!) but you are fully responsible for
just about everything else. This means your social life, your job, your
belongings, and just about everything else that you can think of. That
support structure that kept you from playing video games the night
before you had a fifteen-page research paper due just isn’t in place
any longer now that you’ve moved away and taken on this new challenge.
But this is no reason to panic. It’s simply every reason to be more
conscientious. You’re going to have a lot of things to juggle: you’ll
attend classes, do the requisite reading, write the required papers,
have a social life both on and off campus, participate in demanding
extra-curriculars like the campus newspaper or the college football
team, and have to take care of your living situations in terms of not
running out of gas or snacks or cafeteria swipes.
And if you feel that there aren’t enough hours in the day to get all
this done and not resemble the Crypt Keeper from “Tales From the
Crypt,” then it might mean that your schedule and organizational skills
could use some fine-tuning.
First things first: itemize and prioritize. Those are the words that
your college Composition professors will smack you on the wrist for
using (never turn your nouns into verbs!), but they work in this
context. We’ll just have to struggle to live with the fact that in
using them, we are partially responsible for the progressive
deterioration of the English language.
But that’s the happy-haps. Savvy?
Getting back on track: itemize and prioritize. If you find yourself
barely managing to take care of the things that are on fire in front of
you, it might help to make a simple To Do list on your phone, computer,
Facebook page, or on a piece of paper (do people still use those? We’ll
have to check). Write down everything you need to accomplish that day
(feel free to add in things that you have to progressively work on, but
that might be due later in the week, etc) and then decide which ones
are the most important. We’d imagine that, in a strictly logical world,
finishing reading Rabelais’s Gargantua and Pentagruel for class is more
important than going to the mixer at the Phi Miu House, even though
there will be hot chicks there. (Or hot guys.) Keep these things in
mind and rank your items, even if you’re not particularly pleased with
having to make certain sacrifices. Just remember that it will pay off
in the near future.
Managing Your Time Wisely
To Do lists are very nice and very helpful, but they won’t make too
much of a difference in your schedule and day-to-day life if you only
use them every once in a while when you see that Sword of Damocles
dangling over your head. (Next item on your To Do list: Google “sword
of damocles.”)
Here are some steps to incorporate better time management and
organization skills into your everyday schedule. Repeatedly go through
these steps and before long, it will feel like second nature to you.
And that when it’ll be safe to put down that Red Bull. Put it down. No,
put it down. There. Good.
- Focus. That’s right, just watch the oscillating pendulum
and figure out what’s really important: studying for a test on Kurt
Godel’s Number Theory and method of arithmoquinification; finishing
that research paper on Sheridan’s School For Scandal; getting your
scholarship essays and your FAFSA done for next year; etc. Make a list
of just about everything you have to get done that won’t be a total
cake-walk.
- Plan. Rank the items on your list. Place the most
important ones on the top: logically, you’d want to finish reading
Heart of Darkness for class before you painted your toenails with your
new “I’m Not Really a Waitress” polish or before you resumed your
efforts to build your stats up enough to be an eleventh level elf
cleric. Also, rank according to how much time you have in which to
complete those tasks. For example, you’d probably want to organize the
food for the Sigma Tau Delta function (yes, they are aware they have an
acronym problem) the following night before you began working on that
annotated bibliography due next month. If you are especially zealous,
you can set time and amount limits on each task. For example, you could
tell yourself that you would have to spend three hours studying for
your Chemistry test, or that you absolutely had to have seventy-five
pages of Beloved read by the following morning, etc.
- Act. Determine what it will take on your part to get every
item on your list done, starting with the one you identified as most
important and working on down the list. Start working on this in an
orderly manner. Think about what activities would help you achieve your
highest priority items, which projects would yield the highest return
on your time investment, what the penalty for not completing a certain
task on that day would be, and the two or three items you would most
like to see accomplished that day.
- Cooperate/Delegate. Maximize your potential for success by
working with others. If you’re doing a group project, don’t make the
mistake of taking every responsibility for yourself so that you know
it’s done right. Divide up the work to be done based on the skills (and
willing participation) of each member of your group. Sure, it’ll take
some time to discuss the entire project and figure out who wants to do
what, but you’ll make up for it later when you leave and begin your own
part of the project knowing exactly what you’re personally responsible
for and what everyone else is doing and how it will all soon fit
together. If you’re part of a study group, divide up the material to be
learned and have each person create study guides and overviews for it;
when you meet again, proceed through the material and the study guides.
When working in a team, always keep the final goal in sight and do your
best to help the whole team work evenly and steadily toward that goal.
You will save yourself time, energy, and perhaps a stress-ulcer.
Managing Your Time, Period
So we’ve walked you through the most efficient and useful way to
organize your everyday activities: focus on your goals, write them
down, decide which ones are most important, and work to achieve them in
a timely and orderly manner. If you follow these steps, you will save
yourself much time and effort and you will gradually improve your
organizational skills.
However, there is one more thing we’ve so far neglected to mention that
will greatly help you stay on top of what you have to do when, and so
on.
So, next item on your To Do list: Get a wristwatch. Wear wristwatch. Use wristwatch.
Sometimes, it’s the little things!
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