When reflecting on my own personal experience and the interviews that I did I found some key information that’s helpful to know when trying to balance your social and academic life with using time management strategies. What I have heard from others is that one of the best ways for you to start getting comfortable balancing these two aspects of life is to just find what works for you. You may be wondering what exactly does that look like? Balancing your social and academic life can come in many different forms, but something that I heard repeatedly was to just take some time at the start of each semester and go through your syllabus and the work that will be assigned to you throughout the semester. By doing this, you can see when certain tasks need to be completed and you can start planning out a schedule that works for you. This will allow you to decide ahead of time if you will be able to get your work done when a friend asks you to go out or if you should make the choice to stay in instead. Using this technique can make it a much easier decision as to whether you say yes or no. Now obviously, everyone is different and some things that work for others may not work for you, but that’s ok! With practice and patience you will be able to create effective time management skills that are tailored to best fit you.
There are certainly some things to keep in mind when you are trying to figure out how to go about getting your work done. One thing that I know helped me was finding a space that I wouldn’t get distracted by anyone else. This helped me stay focused on my work and get it done in a quicker manner. You can also just try to schedule a small amount of time everyday that you get homework done because it is easier to sit in front of your laptop or computer and get 30-40 minutes of work done a day than it is to struggle and get frustrated trying to get hours on top of hours of work done in a single day.
