Being a student requires a full-time commitment, a good attitude, discipline, and dedication. Considering the academic activities and challenges in and outside the school, students are faced with a dilemma of how to balance both personal and student life. But this does not need to be strenuous, rather, you should find time to keep yourself sane and intact as you keep your daily activities aligned with your priorities and goals through effective life management.
Here are some of the basketfuls of advice you can use to pace yourself in your academic journey successfully:
- Organize your daily activities
Scheduling your everyday activities will allow you to prioritize the most important tasks. Make it a habit to plan your week so you can budget your time. Carefully allocate the tasks within your specific schedules and stick to them until you finish before the deadline. Remember, to get ahead in life, always get organized.
- Keep a journal.
Have you experienced journaling? Or have you tried one in the past and suddenly stopped? Journaling consistently allows you to have a safe free space to communicate your emotions and feelings through your daily experiences. You can process your thoughts more effectively through writing. Writing down your goals and creating a timeline to achieve them will give you control over where your life is heading throughout the day, week, month, or year. So, what are you doing? Get your notebook and start journaling.
- Apply “Pomodoro Technique”!
Managing time is also one of the daily struggles of students like you. Even adults, especially working professionals, have also difficulty managing activities which can hamper productivity and mental health. So, here’s Pomodoro Technique to help you.
Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that was invented in the late 1980s by Francesco Cirillo, an Italian university student, who, just like you, was also overwhelmed with academic workloads. He used this technique to manage his daily activities which successfully helped him in his studies.
In this technique, you set your timer to focus on a single task for 25 minutes which is known as pomodoros, and take a five-minute break to get yourself restored, refreshed, and ready for another set of 25-minute focused tasks. This technique will surely help you to be more productive and work efficiently.
You may check this link:The Pomodoro Technique — Why it works & how to do it for a more detailed explanation of this technique.
Seemed interesting? Go ahead and try this technique. You will surely nip those deadlines as quickly as possible!
- Focus on the most important tasks.
Time management is life management. In order to achieve your goals in school and in life, focus on the most important tasks. Bryan Tracy, a famous self-help and motivational author, once wrote in his book, Eat That Frog! says that to be more productive and efficient, eat the ugliest frog first, meaning complete the difficult tasks first before moving to the next tasks.
Focusing on the difficult tasks will gear you to strategize in managing your time wisely and that will give you a sense of joy and satisfaction once it’s done. Want to be more productive in school? Eat that ugliest frog!
“Time management is life management. To achieve your goals in school and life, focus on the most important tasks.”
- Reward yourself once in a while
Taking good care of yourself by engaging in activities that eliminate stress and anxiety will help you to reduce the cycle of burnout. Once done with your school activities and projects, reward yourself by watching your favorite K-dramas or watching comedy shows and movies that lighten the mood. After all, laughter is the best medicine, so find time to crack jokes with friends and watch your favorite shows.
To get yourself motivated and inspired in your daily activities, find joy by sipping a cup of coffee, smelling the roses in the garden, and simply thanking God for all the accomplishments you earned which remarkably help you to be the person you are becoming. Always celebrate small wins.
There’s no shortcut to living a well-balanced life. Choose only the things that matter to you in your present moments and continuously break barriers as you move towards becoming the best version of yourself. To keep on getting ahead in life, always keep on keeping on.