Time management and study tips
Study Tips
- Don’t cram at the last minute.
- In fact, don’t cram at all.
- Don’t do all-nighters.
The evidence is against you.
Time Management Tips
Managing your time wisely when taking four or five college classes isn’t easy but it isn’t horrifyingly difficult either.
A successful time-manager student, which means a self-management student, will be less stressed, get more sleep and feel better than those who procrastinate.
To help you start your first semester on the right track and put that 4.0 grade point average within reach,here are three tips from experts
1. Use a day planner
It will hold you accountable for even the smallest of tasks. A planner “will not only help students keep track of academic responsibilities,” says Michelle Curtis-Bailey, senior admissions advisor and Educational Opportunity Program coordinator at Stony Brook University, “but it will also [help in noting] important campus deadlines, such as drop and add dates, course withdrawal deadlines, registering for courses, and more.”
In using a daily planner, “students should record the tasks they need to complete on a daily, weekly and monthly basis,” says Hope Walton, director of the Academic Skills Center at the University of Richmond in Virginia. List your tasks by high and low priority, Walton says, keeping in mind that your focus should be on completing larger projects by their due dates first.
Lynne Richardson, dean of the College of Business at the University of Mary Washington, tells students to make sure they pencil in some time to relax when prioritizing their week.
2. Form study groups early
Form study groups where you can talk and work through the same assignments with others. Ann Marie Klotz, the dean for campus life at the New York Institute of Technology, advises students to “build weekly traditions. Enchiladas and Engineering? Pizza and Poetry?” she says. “Form groups to study and make it social, too.”
3. Break projects into smaller steps
Feeling overwhelmed often leads to procrastination. For college students, this may mean that a long research essay seems too daunting to begin. But to succeed in college, you’ll have to face these challenges head-on. Sharon Donnelly, director of counseling at Delaware Valley College, advises breaking down big assignments into smaller parts or steps.
“For example,” she says, “if you have a 15-page paper due at the end of the semester, start by drafting up the paper.
Then, set aside time in your schedule to work on each part of the outline, as well as time to revise and proofread it.”
Not only will you feel more successful in having accomplished these small goals, you will also learn what it takes to manage your time most effectively.
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