Time Management

What is this time management people speak of? Personally, I have no idea. Figuring out what that is has proved to be very difficult for me.

Throughout my academic career people have always tried to get us students to be more efficient with our time. Teachers have required a schedule, syllabi were handed out, and planners were expected to be used. Expectations, however, far exceeded the reality of the situation.

I would always begin by using the planner and somewhere between writing in my homework assignments and doing my homework assignments, I stopped. In fact, my homework assignments were barely done on time as it was. None this had ever really been a problem, aside from the time I had to write a 15-pager in 3 hours, up until now.

Since I started working full-time and pursuing a Master’s Degree full-time, my time has felt less and less like it was mine. These days I feel like a dog chasing a bone that I will never catch. Friends have told me I’ve taken on more than I can chew, and maybe they’re right. If work and school wasn’t enough, I’ve been selected to do a research project for my Master’s program as well as help out where I can at my undergrad institution with my fraternity. Basically, I have no life.

Time management is something I’m learning while I go. I bought myself a planner. Not just any planner, but a big planner. At this point I’m scheduling out my hours and making the most of what I can. At the end of the day, I sit down and try to make sense of where my time went and whether or not it was well spent.

Thus far, I’m still failing. There are a lot of long nights and exhausted mornings. Aside from pushing myself to stay off the internet and get my work done without procrastinating I’m at a loss of what to do. So I pose this question: how do you manage you time.

Use the comment section to post some good time management tips.