How I manage my time (as a student)

Inspired by Bethia's post over at ...
As the quote says, planning is the first step to success!
At a high point in my life, I was juggling school & keeping up with studies, 2 part time jobs working min 2x shifts a week, giving tuition 2x a week, had a CCA and still went to the gym! It was tough having to deal with so many roles, so I had to learn how to micromanage my time.

Here are some tips that can help you to manage your time better.

1. Determine your ideal week.
Use this tool called a chronodex.
Categorise the various activities & roles in your life to themes such as 'Leisure', 'Fitness', 'Work', 'School', 'Study/Assignments', 'Personal development' etc.
Find out how much time you would like to allocate for each category to make sure that you don't neglect the other areas!
Here's an example of mine:
I don't allocate a lot of time for leisure because I would like to spend more time on other areas of my life such as fitness and personal development :)


2. Schedule a week in advance.
Write it down somewhere.
So that you'll know how you are spending your time, as well as any upcoming due dates.
You'll be able to plan ahead and make sure you're not double booking for any events/activities or filling up your day with TOO many activities, and know when to finish this task for a particular assignment so you don't have to end up rushing last minute work -- that feeling really sucks and I'm sure no one enjoys it!
I use a calendar app called Sunrise.
I also write on a physical journal cos it helps me to remember better, and that's where I keep all my notes and to-dos!

3. Sleep early
I really attempt to sleep by 10.30pm but most of the time i am successfully sleeping by 12am.
I value my health, so if it's not urgent, I'll just tell myself to stop doing work and continue the next day.
I realised that by sleeping early & waking up early at 5 to 6am (complemented by a healthy diet), I have tons of energy to be productive, even for 8am classes!
And being productive is not about being busy -- its about how much progress you're making towards your goal instead of being knee-deep in work that does not matter & getting caught up in the urgencies of life.

(ie. One of mine is to score perfect grades this semester, so I'm definitely working towards that!)

One of my next posts will be on how to set goals, so do keep a look out for that :)