Time Management
Every college program involves completing a long list of challenging tasks. Keeping track of those tasks and their deadlines is a common source of stress for college students. Many struggling students don’t plan to fail; they simply fail to plan.
Top Tips
✓ Use your time wisely. There are 168 hours in a week. Use idle time to complete smaller tasks. This will free up time for the big things.
✓ Devote more time to important assignments. Be prepared to invest an average of 2 solid hours for every 5% an assignment is worth.
✓ Prioritize your assignments. Make sure that you can devote the time needed to each assignment, accounting for other responsibilities in your life and other things that may come up.
✓ Start planning your time early in the semester. The earlier you start managing your time, the easier it is. Get into good habits early so you don’t fall behind.
✓ Create a semester plan. Write down your deadlines for the semester so that they don’t catch you by surprise.
✓ Plan out your week. Create a weekly schedule and use it every day.
✓ Give yourself enough time. Budget at least 1 hour of homework time for every hour of class time.
✓ Prioritize your tasks. Make a task list and do the most important and urgent things first.
✓ Develop an assignment tracker. Plan how you will complete your assignments by breaking big tasks down into manageable steps.
✓ Start early. Don’t get sucked into the procrastination trap. Give yourself enough time to complete your assignment properly.
✓ Plan some downtime. Make sure to include time for fun or relaxing into your schedule every day.
Using an Assignment Tracker
Attribution
Unless otherwise stated, the material in this guide is from the Learning Portal created by College Libraries Ontario. Content has been adapted for the NWP Learning Commons in June 2021. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons BY NC SA 4.0 International License.
All icons on these pages are from The Noun Project. See individual icons for creator attribution.
