K Success

Organizing your time may seem like an impossible feat when you already have so many obligations to fulfill. You may be tempted to leave your schedule behind and ignore it because the task of updating it may seem so daunting. However, there is no reason to be afraid of keeping a schedule book and using it to keep track of all your obligations. Knowing how you will use your time can go a long way toward making a full plate seem possible to deal with.

The first step you want to take when getting ready to organize is to purchase a planner or open up a blank document on your word processing software. Make an outline of your day, with a space open for every hour that you are awake during the day and night. Now block out how you will spend each hour, even things that you may not have previously considered to be time commitments. Everything takes time, even life-sustaining tasks such as eating and showering. The idea is to commit time to all the tasks you complete without thinking about, and then see how much time is left.

Once you have blocked out your everyday tasks and chores, then begin blocking out your commitments. Pencil in time that you will use for work, for take-home assignments if you have any, and for class. If you are on a committee or a member of a club, add the time that you spend at meetings and also the time that you spend on projects that you volunteer to take home. Try to use realistic estimates of your time when possible. If you have homework that will take you two hours to complete, then give yourself two hours to complete that task instead of trying to condense it down to one hour.

At this point you should have a fairly accurate estimate of how you spend most hours in your day. There should also be some empty hours visible, in which you are not cooking, cleaning, working or commuting. Use these hours to schedule yourself some down time in whatever way you may choose. Rewarding yourself with some scheduled fun time on a regular basis can give you something to look forward to when you are busy with a difficult task, and knowing how long until you are done with a task makes it easier for you to work on it without getting stressed. Organizing your time is a great way to relieve the pressures of everyday life by giving yourself control over the way you spend each day.