One of the most important skills you can master at college is time management. Between classes, coursework, a job and social life, it can be challenging to keep it all under control. Knowing how to organize and schedule your time can go a long way toward your success at UWA. Below, you’ll find some ways to help ensure that you maintain a healthy balance between work and play.

  • Maintain balance. It takes work to balance your health, family, finances, intellect, social life, professional life, and spiritual life. Prioritize these areas of your life and spend some time working on each area, and you will find that your life is balanced.
  • Leverage the power of the pen. Get into the habit of documenting what you have to do using a calendar or other type of daily planner. Writing things down helps you more easily remember all that you need to accomplish.
  • Daily planning. People who fail to plan, plan to fail. Take the time each night to prioritize the most precious resource at your command — the next 24 hours. Write up To-Do lists daily. Without a plan, you can easily get distracted, spending your time serving the loudest voice rather than handling the most important things.
  • Prioritize it. Your To-Do list will have crucial and not-so-crucial items on it. Tackle the items on your list in order of their importance. You may not get everything done, but you will get the most important things done. This is about working smarter, not harder to get more done in less time.
  • Control procrastination. The most effective planning in the world does not substitute for doing what needs to be done. Take a procrastinated project and turn it into a game. Work with one thing in front of you at a time so other things won’t distract you. Break it down into bite-sized, manageable pieces. Get it started, take the first step and you will likely continue it to completion. Remember to reward yourself when you complete a task.
  • Work with a clean desk. “Out of sight, out of mind.” The reverse of that is true, too. When it’s in sight, it’s in mind and we cannot help but be distracted. Keep the clutter before you at a minimum and you will have a more accurate focus on what you need to do to increase your daily productivity.