Time Management Tip--Invest in a Planner

As a student at the University of Denver, I thought it might be fun to share some of my own strategies of surviving the college workload.

When it comes to college, natural smarts is only half of the success. Unlike high school, the workload is substantially higher, plus other extracurricular activities demand the same amount of our attention. It's easy as a college student to fall behind on schoolwork when worrying about clubs, sports, Greek life, jobs, plus living on your own in a dorm. In order to succeed in doing it all, you have to stay organized, and be proactive.

Now I happen to be one of those crazy people who is unnaturally meticulous about, well, everything! Nonetheless, here are some of the skills I've found help me in staying on top of life in college:

Invest in a planner    


Even if you never used one in high school, make a habit of using a planner; it's a great way to keep deadlines, due dates, events, tests, etc. all in one place. As you can see, I use a weekly/monthly planner, meaning that it shows the month and then the subsequent pages are that same month broken down by week (sounds way more complicated than it actually is). The nice thing about a weekly calendar is that it allows you to see everything you have going for the week without feeling too zoomed out, like a monthly calendar. I would also recommend purchasing one with enough writing space under each day for the week, so that you have plenty of room to write in your busy life.




By keeping such information in one place, even if you're not really a "planning person," you make it easy for yourself to know when things are due and what time commitments you have. Organization is one of the first steps to success.

I use a medium-sized planner, which you can purchase at Wal-Mart or Target. I also use a plastic marker with a key ring so I can easily find my place. Also by having one with a wire binding, you can buy a thin mechanical pencil that fits inside it so that you always have a writing utensil with your planner.


On a side note, for you crazy organizational people like me, on top of using a planner I also use a dry erase monthly calendar. I color code each of my classes and then fill in what assignments are due for the month. This is a great way to get a broader view of what is coming up. Plus it helps to write in activities, outings, etc. so you can really see what's coming for you.

As you can see, I have a very busy schedule this month.


Coming Up

Next time I'll be discussing proactivity, and how I use it to stay on top of my  busy life in college.