We can make time, waste time, spend time, take time and kill time. We can put time in and take time out. We can do the hokey pokey and shake it all about. We have time-honored traditions, start times and end times. There’s free time, paid time, overtime and double time. We can have the time of our lives through both good times and bad times. We can have too much time on our hands and never enough time in the day. We can have time on our side or we can take time off.

Time is even used to define other things, like velocity, and scientists tell us that at the speed of light, time stops completely. I can’t even wrap my head around that. Time has been a major subject of religion, philosophy and science for…a really long time, and yet it eludes a consensual, definitive definition. And yet we are somehow expected to manage it.

So it’s no surprise that many college students discover rather quickly that managing their time can be one of the most difficult and challenging aspects of being in school. In college, you have less in-class time and more outside of class work. You have more freedom and flexibility than ever before and probably more than you will ever have again. Depending on your class load and hours spent working at a job, you may be as busy as you will ever be, but more than any other time in your life, you are the one who sets the schedule.

The good news is you don’t have to be a theoretical physicist to figure out how to get everything done. The bad news is nothing motivates like the last minute.

So how do you keep from letting everything pile up until the eleventh hour, at which point you binge on caffeine and sleep deprivation until you slide your projects under the professor’s door mere seconds before the appointed deadline?

At this point, you’re probably expecting a list of time-management strategies and techniques that you should follow during your college experience. A quick Google search will show that there are plenty of these types of lists out there if that is what works for you. It’s probably a good idea for everyone to look into a few of these lists for some good ideas. But people are different, and what works for one may not work for all. And the longer the list, the less likely you will follow it.

Some people work better scheduling things down to the minute. Others excel with just a skeleton of structure and fit in everything else on the fly.

So let’s keep the list short and simple.

1. Take responsibility — You can go to the lake and sunbathe instead of going to class if you want. Nobody is going to stop you. It’s your life. It’s your call.
2. Keep track of important deadlines — A calendar is good for this, either electronic or paper, but you can use the back of a pizza box if you want as long as you record everything in one place and don’t throw it out.
3. Find your rhythm — Every semester is a little different, but you know how your body and mind work better than anyone. Maybe you study better first thing in the morning, or maybe you are a bit of a night owl. Play to your strengths and try to schedule things to work with your natural patterns.

With a little effort you can successfully manage your time in college, but there is no one-size-fits-all strategy. Find what works for you and run with it. If you are having difficulty making it work on your own, talk with a school counselor and attack the problem together. Start developing good habits now. There is no time like the present.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aidanmorgan/ / CC BY 2.0