studybuzz:

MARCH MASTERPOST MADNESS PT II

hello again from your girl jo! i have another masterpost/advice post here — this time about time management! this is an issue we all face (I have an eternal struggle with this don’t get me started) so i thought it’d be a great idea to do this. without further ado, here we go!

WHERE DO YOU BEGIN?

there are way too many effective ways to get your life back on track I would not (and cannot) settle on one. here are a few of my personal favorites!

• to-do lists: you can go wild with these, and there are so many templates out there that you can use to maximize productivity! i personally love nicole’s pomodoro printables a ton, and i would definitely recommend them! you can also DIY these with a piece of paper or a sticky note (my preferred method) if you like! mine look like these, and i list them in order of priority most of the time! with to-do lists you’ll be able to organize and allocate time that you need to get these tasks done! if you prefer paperless versions, try out Google Keep, Any.do and Wunderlist!
  
• plan, plan, plan: this is similar to a to-do list, but kind of different at the same time! with a planner you can look ahead and make sure you’re not swamped with work on one day and doing none the next day, which is great (in my opinion)! with a planner you can also allocate timeslots for certain tasks, which is neat. my favorite planners are here: x, x
• calendars: personally i love using my phone’s calendar app (the built-in Apple one) because it syncs everything from all my devices and it alerts me when i need to get something done! i love using this because it reminds me to get something done (i’m super forgetful lmao) and when to do it! i’ve also heard great things about apps like Cal and Sunrise Calendar for these things, but i have not personally tried them out yet!
• other productivity apps: yes these are amazing!! i use the Homework App to keep track of my assignments and it is super helpful! Pomodoro Time and 30/30 are just a few apps that you can use to time yourself, although the regular old timer works pretty good! I personally really like using my phone to manage my time, and I often find myself timing certain tasks (like reading from a textbook, rewriting notes) so I don’t go overboard and spend too much time on these tasks!

MY ADVICE

real talk though, I’m not an expert on this, so take what I have to say with a grain of salt. What I’ve learnt so far in my schooling career is that planning is super important to managing your time well! if you don’t have a certain list of things to do, or a goal of what to finish by the end of the day, you are more likely to spend the day watching cute dog videos, right? (been there, done that) So my best advice is to plan things out. Plan everything. But don’t go overboard, and practice Unscheduling instead (this is when you don’t put specific timeblocks on anything, but instead leave out chunks of time to do your work!) 

Another thing to keep in mind when you have a large amount of time to do work (week-long breaks, for instance) is to always start at the earliest possible moment. Tell yourself that you’ll reward yourself with *insert treat of choice here* if you manage to finish all your homework and revision before the break ends! Not only will this motivate you, when you actually get it done you’ll be so relieved, and you’ll have extra time to relax after that! With time management, you really have to start at the earliest possible moment.

(Source: studybuzz-blog, via studiants)