Learning Challenge: Time Tips

Between two part-time jobs, 17 credit hours, campus involvement, scholarship applications, and family/friend obligations, I'm someone that believes very deeply in the important of managing time effectively. As such, I have a few tips below that I follow pretty fervently that help me get everything done!

1. Automate what you can
Sometimes, in an attempt to get things done quickly, I think that some of us sacrifice the quality of our work. In order to prevent that, see if you can create a process by which you're able to focus on the creative aspects of a project/task (the part that can't be automated), and see what you can do to automate the rest of the work. For example, I'm a huge proponent of using Google Forms, bit.lys, and spreadsheets to organize and disseminate information. Learning how to use those tools effectively allows me to do my job as the Secretary for the Undergraduate Student Congress much more efficiently and accurately.

2. Plan out time to plan out time
I have a recurring appointment with myself on Sunday evenings to sit down for 30 minutes and organize my to-do lists and schedule for the week, which really helps me to know what's coming up during the week.

3. Set "office hours" for yourself
Some of you might have jobs that require you to hold office hours; if so, ignore this post. However, for those of you who don't, it's helpful to plan a certain time every week that you devote to working on random/miscellaneous tasks. Personally, I know that I often get a lot of random "to-dos" from people as a week goes on, and I often distract myself from my immediate goals by completing the tasks that were just given to me. To avoid this, use your "office hours" to do all the tasks you hadn't planned to do for the week. That way, you're planning for the unexpected.

Volunteers working in the office of 38 Degrees, posted by 38 Degrees' Flickr account
Source: Flickr