by Amelia Schaffer

Created on: July 23, 2009   Last Updated: July 31, 2009

Time management skills are essential for getting the most out of your college experience. You must learn to balance many different aspects of your life, such as schoolwork, a work-study job, a boyfriend or girlfriend, and socializing with your friends. Developing good time management skills will help you do well in school without neglecting other important parts of your life.

The most important aspect of time management is not only to plan your time, but to make the most of it. An hour of studying at the library in the afternoon will be much more effective than an hour of studying late at night in your dorm while your next-door neighbor is throwing a party. Remove distractions when you study. Find a quiet place or, if it helps you focus, study with a friend or in a public area where you're surrounded by white noise. Disconnect the Internet if you don't need it to do research; in fact, don't use your computer at all if you can help it. It's too easy to let a few minutes of distraction turn into half an hour of e-mail checking or mindless games of solitaire. If you stay focused on your work, taking just one or two short study breaks to get a snack or walk around, you will get things done faster and more efficiently.

It also helps to find little ways to save time in your day. Often there are short bits of time between classes or before club meetings during which you have nothing to do but sit around and wait. Make use of that time. If you have twenty minutes between classes, use that to look at index cards or catch up on a short reading.

No matter how well you can make use of these small breaks, however, it's better to minimize them, and try to create larger blocks of free time in your schedule, by planning your classes well. Consider the amount of time needed for commuting or walking to class. Try to schedule classes in blocks, or work in a few hours of study time at the library between them, so you can spend less time going to and from your home or dorm.

Prioritization is another key to time management. Remember that you can't do everything you might want to do. College classes have a much heavier workload than high school classes, and you'll need to spend more time studying and less time with friends or extracurriculars. Leave yourself some leeway in your schedule until you start to get a feel for how much time certain assignments might take.

The last thing to remember is to allow your schedule some flexibility. If you have a lot of trouble focusing during your usual study time, take a break and study later instead. If there's a special event that will take up several hours of your time, make up your usual studying over the next few days. Part of good time management is learning to let it come naturally, instead of using too much of your valuable time to plan your schedule.

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