As a student, it is essential that you master basics of time management because the moment you leave your parent’s house and move into off campus housing, you will start facing a variety of time management challenges unique to college students. But why do these students find it hard to manage time? It’s because the term ‘Time Management’ is a misnomer.

No one can manage time. You can only manage events in your life relative to time. Here are some time management tips that will make your life easier.

Set Priorities

Proper time management calls for a clear definition of what is urgent and what is important. Experts say “the urgent tasks are not usually the most important. However, students tend to let the urgent ones dominate their lives. In the end, they get stressed.” For great time management skills, adopt the time management matrix that was designed by Merrill, and Covey. The matrix classifies time into four categories; important, not important, urgent and not urgent. Then, note the following:

• Tasks that are marked as both important and urgent must be done.
• Spend as little time as possible on tasks that are marked as not important
• Try and minimize the number of tasks that become marked as important and urgent.

Have a To-Do List

Another obvious, but underutilized approach is to maintain monthly, weekly or daily to-do lists depending on your lifestyle. Just be cautious not to let list making get out of hand. Ideally, you want to:

• Rank items in order of priority
• Don’t keep more than one list at any given time and
• Group similar tasks together; you can use color coding.

Having a to-do list allows you to avoid tasks that may appear attractive but are not in line with your priorities.

Stop Procrastinating

Students procrastinate for several reasons, but mostly because the task at hand is unpleasant or overwhelming. If this is the case, try and break the task into small parts that require little time commitment and have specific, realistic completion deadlines. If you are finding it hard to get started, start with a simple, preparatory task like organizing or collecting information on the topic. It might also help to build a self-reward system on completion of each task.

Manage External Time Wasters

For most students living in off campus apartments, their time is affected by external factors imposed by other people. To overcome this, implement the following tips:

Manage your phone

• Set voice mail and set a specific time to make return calls,
• Avoid side talks. Focus on the primary reason for the call.
• Stand up when making calls; you are more likely to keep the talk short.
• Keep your phone book next to the phone.

Manage your visits

• If you are not okay with the time, tell the visitor politely that you’re unavailable at that time and schedule a more convenient time.
• Set a mutually acceptable time for the visitor.
• Know the objective of the meeting well in time.
• If a person comes to your room, stand up and half the talk while standing.
• Arrive on time and end the meeting on time.
• Lastly, only schedule meetings if they are value-adding.

Manage your emails

• Turn off the instant message feature on your phone and
• Set a specific time to reply emails.

Well, these are the tips we have prepared to help you manage your time when living in off campus student housing. If you would like help looking for a student apartment in Texas, feel free to contact us.

What methods do you use to manage your time? We would love hearing your feedback! Follow us on social media to stay in touch.