Time management in college: Tips for success

College is a time to learn skills and knowledge related to your desired career field, but learning core soft skills is also typically key to success. Time management is one of these—and for good reason. As recent research suggests, good time-management skills are associated with both higher levels of academic achievement and lower levels of anxiety. Students who learn to navigate various demands on their time may also gain valuable self-management and discipline skills that could prove useful in their future careers. Read on for more information about the importance of time management, its key components, and how to improve each of them.

The importance of time management for students

If you're a college student, learning to manage your time appropriately may have several potential benefits. One of these is increased academic performance. In many cases, college represents the first time in their life that a student is solely responsible for their own success, so developing strong self-direction skills might be one of the best ways to ensure that they meet their academic goals. Time management is also an important skill in the workplace, so developing it in college can help support a student’s future career success.  

In addition, as noted above, adequate time management can be associated with lower levels of anxiety. This is because it can help you make sure that you complete assignments on time and are using the strategies you need to avoid falling behind in your studies. 

The three core skills of time management

There are many skills students may need to develop as they learn the self-discipline necessary to excel in college and the workplace. Many people are familiar with basic strategies for managing their time such as using a calendar or limiting distractions, for example. However, a 2017 study suggests that those strategies are actually based on three broader, underlying skills that are core to good time management overall. These are:

• Awareness, or the ability to think realistically about time and understand it as a limited resource
• Arrangement, or the ability to organize, plan, set goals, follow schedules, and complete tasks—which is what most people think of when considering the skill of managing time
• Adaptation, or the ability to monitor time usage, identify areas for improvement, and implement changes to utilize time more efficiently

A key finding from the study indicates that all three skills matter equally, but many individuals focus solely on the arrangement skill—for example, implementing strategies to improve scheduling and planning but not focusing on awareness or adaptation. This might be why people often experience disappointing results after trying a new tool for managing their time—because they are only focused on one-third of the necessary skills.

Researchers in the 2017 study also discovered that people seem to have the most trouble with awareness and adaptation skills, scoring 24% lower in these areas on average than in the area of arrangement. They note as well that the average person is not typically accurate when evaluating their own ability to manage time. In fact, only 1% of participants had self-ratings that matched their scores on objective measures of awareness, arrangement, and adaptation. That’s why learning to improve one’s skills in each of these areas can be paramount to improving time-management abilities.

Tips for improving your awareness skills

To improve your time-management skills, you might start by aiming to boost your sense of awareness—an area where people are commonly lacking. Here are a few techniques that might help.

Keep a journal

Most people know the importance of keeping a to-do list or planner handy to keep track of tasks. What many don’t know is that journaling can boost the utility of these organizational aids by giving you insight into how your time is actually spent and different factors that may affect it. 

To leverage the power of journaling, you might make brief journal entries throughout the day as you complete tasks, also noting environmental factors (whether you listened to music while working on your task, whether you used productivity timers or methods, etc.). When you look back on your entries, you may notice trends that you can capitalize on for increased productivity.

Ask for feedback

In many cases, those around you can offer some insight into your ability to manage time. To discover these insights, you might ask people in your life to share their impressions of your time-management skills, making sure to keep an open mind toward their feedback. For example, you could talk to classmates you study with or who have worked with you on group projects. Considering their comments may give you ideas on new areas for improvement.

Track your time temporarily 

It may be energy-intensive and require discipline, but tracking your time usage over a certain period can produce valuable insights into your existing time-management skills and where you could improve. To do this, you might make a note of what you’re doing every half-hour for an extended period. One expert suggests 30 days, but starting with just one week may be easier. At the end of your time-tracking period, analyze how you spent your time to find patterns. For instance, you might note that you’re particularly productive in the afternoons or realize that you struggle to focus when others are around.

Tips for improving your arrangement skills

Most of the commonly suggested time-management strategies—such as adhering to a task list or keeping a calendar, for example—are arrangement skills. Some tips for enhancing arrangement skills are listed below.

Work ahead

A key element in ensuring your tasks get completed is avoiding procrastination and falling behind. It can be tempting to delay research papers and other complex assignments until the day before they’re due, but there’s a good chance your stress levels will be higher and your work quality lower than if you had started earlier and worked on them bit by bit over time. Making a schedule and setting reminders to stick to it may help you avoid procrastination, as may enlisting a classmate with the same assignment to be your accountability buddy.

Use organizational tools

Using organizational tools such as calendars, planners, reminders, and to-do lists, for example, can also increase your ability to manage time. It may be challenging to build the habit initially, but leveraging these to help keep track of your schedule, due dates, and other important information can significantly reduce your cognitive workload. It can help to experiment a bit at first to find what works best for you.

Pursue recreation too

Rest and recreation are important when managing your time, too. It’s generally not realistic to spend every waking minute on academic tasks. Consider using social events or other activities you enjoy as a reward for completed work, and make sure to schedule regular time specifically for rest and relaxation regardless.

Tips for improving your adaptation skills

Adapting to change is another crucial component of how you manage time. Here are a few ways to boost your adaptation skills.

Prioritize prioritization

You may want to take a step back and assess your priorities regularly, such as at the start of every week. You might consider your academic workload, any upcoming events that week, and any exams or assignment deadlines before deciding which task should take the highest priority. It may also help to reassess your priorities when significant changes to tasks or schedules occur. For example, if your professor postpones a difficult exam by one week, it may be worth revisiting your priorities to determine if other tasks now take precedence over studying for that exam.

Respond instead of reacting

When schedules become hectic, it can be easy to become reactive rather than responsive. Reactive behaviors are often impulsive and based on emotion, like when stress about an exam leads to unintentional procrastination, for example. Responding to changes, in contrast, could look like taking a step back, breathing, and then rationally evaluating your next course of action. College can be stressful and a growing task list may make you feel overwhelmed, but taking a few minutes to decide your next course of action based on logic can save you time in the long run.

Be flexible

You might find it comforting to schedule every minute on your calendar. The structure of a well-planned day or week can be a relief from stress, but it might not leave room for adaptation. Try to leave some gaps in your schedule to allow for other people's schedule changes and unexpected demands on your time that could arise. You may also need extra time if you underestimate how long it will take you to do a complex assignment or if you get sick and need to rest more than usual.

Sharpening your time-management skills in therapy

Another way to work on skills related to time management is to connect with a therapist. They can help you manage any emotions that may be impacting your academic success or general well-being, like stress, overwhelm, or low self-esteem, and they can equip you with strategies for juggling your responsibilities that are catered to your situation and needs. If a mental health condition like anxiety is impacting your success at school, they can also support you in addressing these symptoms.

Due to busy schedules or limited budgets, traveling to a therapist’s office and paying a premium for in-person visits isn’t always a viable option for college students. That’s why many choose to engage in online therapy sessions instead, which can be attended from the comfort of home or a library study room and typically cost less than a traditional in-office visit. You can get matched with a licensed online therapist through a platform like BetterHelp. Research suggests that online therapy can produce similar outcomes to in-person sessions, so you can generally feel confident in choosing either format.

Takeaway

Research suggests that awareness, adaptation, and arrangement are three key components of time management. If you’re looking to improve your time-management skills as a college student, you might focus on building up your abilities in these three areas through strategies like asking for feedback on your skills, scheduling time for rest and recreation, and learning how to prioritize. Meeting with a therapist can also be helpful.