The Article below was published in Vol. 136, Issue 4 of the Lake Forest College Stentor on December 4, 2020.
By Health and Wellness Center Staff
Non-stop! You are probably writing like you are running out of time. It’s finally December, the last month of 2020 where time has felt stolen, yet we still do not want to miss our shot. If you are here reading this post about managing time, I hope this can help provide a sense of structure to the remaining days of the semester.
- Plan Ahead
Spend a couple minutes thinking ahead and planning your activities for the day. This will help reduce the chance of starting your day in a foggy state of mind and feeling overwhelmed with what needs to get done. Also, this will hopefully help you to not jump from one task to the next, eventually not really completing any tasks.
To-do lists are often very useful for academic and personal success. Having visual reminders help you to keep track of important deadlines such as exams, meetings, and deadlines that sometimes are hard to keep organized in our head. Remember to include breaks to maximize your energy and recharge yourself (just like our cell phone or laptop, we can only stay powered on for so long!).
2. Prioritize
Now you have your plan for the day! Next, it is important to consider what sort of work you are in the mood to do. Do you feel creative? You may want to prioritize working on a writing assignment. The goal here is to organize your tasks in order of their importance and urgency. For example, a task of yours might be important but not urgent, could be urgent and important, or not urgent and not important.
3. One Task At A Time
Try your best to avoid switching between multiple assignments at once. To help you stay working on one task at a time, ask yourself:
- What are your most common distractions? (Email, social media, Netflix, etc.)
As finals are approaching, it is easy to get overwhelmed by all the work on your to-do list, and the anxiety will find ways to make you procrastinate. Start with small, simpler tasks and then move on to more complex work on your list. For example, which task on your list is more complicated and needs more time than others?
4. Time Tools
You made it to your work space and you are ready to tackle your to-do list starting with your most important and urgent assignment. A time tool like TomatoTimer can help you master your time and be used to complete tasks. No, do not worry this is not actually about your average kitchen tomato. People who use the TomatoTimer (from the Pomodoro Technique) have found the method useful by setting up a timer to work in short intervals and take short, regular, timed breaks or “Pomodoros.”
The goal here is to help you boost your efficiency by breaking down your work into a set of intervals and take short timed breaks regularly. Some options to try during your break: stretch, doodle, refill water, get up and walk around, close tabs/organize your bookmark toolbar, or have a snack.
5. Self-Compassion
Please, please remember to be kind to yourself. Often self-criticism will increase stress and make the list of tasks look like an impossible mountain to overcome. You need to give your mind a rest and reward yourself when you finish several tasks on your to-do list.Remember that we humans are imperfect and you need to be gentle with yourself, after all we are more productive working from a place of love over fear.
