Managing time as a student can be hard. I know that because, I am a student. You have classes 6 – 7 hours daily, which alone can make you feel like your entire day is over. On top of that, you may have assignments, projects and not to mention exams. So with all this going on, it may seem daunting, to fit in time for things you love, self reflection and other hobbies. But as the philosopher Seneca once said, “It’s not that we have little time, but more that we waste a good deal of it.”
Alright, you are a student looking to make time for stuff other than your academics. First thing is to lay out how a normal day goes for you. Be sure to include everything, I mean everything from the time you wake up, to when you go to sleep. We do this because from a bird’s eye view, the entire day might seem stacked, but as we move closer we can see the small gaps in between. To give you a better idea, here’s what it might look like :
This is a personal example, so yours will definitely vary. But one thing I want to point out is how time is utilized in college. The thing is, personally, I’m pretty stern in the things I do. I don’t really care if I’m seen as the weird dude who sits and reads on his phone at every chance he gets, nor I mind, people thinking I’m a show off, when I start studying things ahead of the class to make time for when I’m home or for the weekends. I don’t really wonder in college to kill time or waste it in chit chatter, for the most part. I’m not saying I’m right, I’m saying, It’s just how I operate. I say all this, because in your day, you have to decide where you want to utilize your time, and were to waste them.
Other than at college, the main goal is not to make time, but to make good use of the time we have. Therefore sacrifices have to be made, as you can see, you might have small packets of time spread across the day, that you once might have spend scrolling on Instagram, YouTube or simply wasted it. For me, the ride to, and from my college is some good alone time, so I use it for things I need to think about. The free time in college is hectic where I can’t really focus on anything, therefore I do unimportant yet necessary things then. I also maximize my time at home. I do these to make my weekends more free. I usually take Saturday as productivity day and Sunday like today, as hobby time where I can relax and write blogs for example. Here is what the new schedule might looks like :
Also FYI, I don’t go through my day carefully watching this schedule. I made this timetable for this blog, in-order to make it easier to visualize things, but in my day to day, I have reached a point where I know where my pockets of free time are, and what I can do in them. You don’t have to write a timetable and watch it strictly, this just helps you figure where your time is wasted. Also mind you, this isn’t a static timetable like the one you are force fed in college. You can move things around, make different ones for different days, not follow it as you please and update it as things change. Don’t be uptight about it, get creative and find time.
