By Olivia Merrick
"Prioritizing is the key to success!” At this point, that sentence has been used so many times, that I feel as though it’s begun to lose its meaning. As a college student, this kind of advice can be stressful to receive. Does everyone else your age already have prioritization down to a science? Where did you miss that message? Are you really not going to be successful unless you can learn it? How do you even begin to learn the skill when it seems like no one’s willing to teach you? The truth is, learning how to prioritize can be a really difficult skill to acquire. I’m certainly not an expert—I am still a college student, too—but I’ve seen my ability to prioritize improve dramatically over the past few years. Below, I’ve written out the approach I take so that you can implement some of the steps in your own life! - Use a planner. I personally use a physical planner, but I know people who swear by Google Calendar or other online planners/calendars. Whatever your cup of tea is, using a planner regularly is a great way to keep track of when you have different assignments due. That way, when you structure a plan of attack, you know what kind of timeline you’re operating on. I’ve also found that color-coordinating my planner helps me see what I have due in each of my classes, which helps me feel more organized, and, consequently, less overwhelmed. - Make a to-do list. I’ve found that to-do lists are most effective when you make a new one every day. Sit down with your list and your planner and look over what assignments are coming up. What deadlines are the most pressing? What assignments can wait until tomorrow? By breaking down your work into a simple urgent/can wait system, you can help yourself feel less overwhelmed by what you need to get done. - Do a mental check-in with yourself. Ask yourself how you’re doing mentally. Figure out your bandwidth for the day. What do you need to be able to complete your work? How can you make that happen? If you’re tired, perhaps you can work hard for a few hours in the morning and take the afternoon off, therefore distributing just a little bit more work over the course of the next few days. Taking care of your physical and mental well-being is key to performing well in school and being able to focus. - Break down each item. Once you’ve made your to-do list, here is where you can really begin to prioritize your work. Look at each item on your list and ask yourself some of the following questions: o How much time will this assignment take me? o Have I already started it? o How much is it worth when it comes to my overall grade? - Restructure your list. Now that you have broken down each element in detail, assign numbers of importance to each item on the list. Assign “1” to the assignment that will take you the longest and have the biggest impact on your grade, and then work your way down from there. By starting with the biggest task, you can use your brain at its least exhausted to get your work done, which is a really helpful approach. - Consider external factors. Other important elements to factor in rely on you knowing the environment you’re working in. Does your apartment get loud at a certain time every night when people get home and start making dinner? Does that noise make it harder for you to focus? If so, that’s another element to consider planning around, and knowing these things about yourself and your workspace will pay dividends when the time comes. Also, bearing in mind the additional commitments you have made for the day—classes, work, time with your friends, etc.—can help you plan a reasonable amount of work to complete depending on each day. Of course, the approach to managing time looks most effective in different forms depending on the person. This is just the approach that I’ve found to work best for me, but maybe, you find that simply relying on your planner or making a weekly to-do list is the most helpful way to manage your time. The key is trial and error to find what works best for you! Additionally, it’s important to remind yourself that you are human, and that you might not be able to get to every single thing on your to-do list on a given day. Sometimes, life deals you an unexpected hand that causes plans to change. Give yourself grace when you don’t accomplish as much as you might have hoped to on a given day and remind yourself that tomorrow is a new start!
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January 2024
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