Tag Archives: time management

Small changes can go a long way

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I have always had a love-hate relationship with time. It seems that it either works with you or against you. As someone who likes to procrastinate, I have experimented with different time management systems. Here is a couple that I find particularly useful. You have probably heard of many of these.

Pomodoro Technique

This is the twisty-tomato time management technique developed by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980s.  In essence, each full twist is a twenty-five minutes timer. The idea is to break study or work into twenty-five-minute intervals with a maximum five-minute break in between each new twist. Every four full twists lead to a long break. Although I find the ticking of the timer to be very distracting, I use my phone as a timer, which has the added benefit for me of not looking at my phone.  I find this most useful when I have a lot to get done in a day.

Eat a Frog in the Morning

Mark Twain once said, “eat a live frog every morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” Now vegan readers: please don’t get offended. By “eating a live frog” he is implying the act of doing something unpleasant task. The idea is that you get the most gruesome task done with first. This way the rest of the day would be a piece of cake. I, for example, find doing my French composition to be a huge challenge that I always do grudgingly. So, I did in the morning, and the rest of my day was a lot more carefree than usual.

Plan your day the night before

Before I sleep, I like to take five to ten minutes to reflect of what I have accomplished that day and what I have tomorrow. I record them both. The former makes me feel accomplished or know what I need to do more. The latter helps me start my day tomorrow. It is always easier to know what is ahead of you. This has also helped my morning panic.

Label the Weeks

As we ease into a semester, the weeks sometimes becomes to feel repetitive and our enthusiasm wanes. I have found that labeling my weeks on my planner to be very helpful. Since a semester is usually 15 weeks long including spring break, knowing which week one is on can help one get perspective. This will remind me to start studying for my mid-terms and finals too.

What time management skills have you find to be helpful? Unhelpful?

 

 

Back From Break: A To Do List

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At school sometimes a week can fly by so fast that it feels like a day.  However, do not underestimate how long a week actually is, and what can be done during that time period.  Spring break may only be a little over seven days, but that is enough to throw you out of your groove.  Settling back in to courses and schedules can be a pretty big adjustment, even though our time away was technically short.

Where you are in your job search might have influenced how you treated your time off.  For me personally, I have not heard back from many places that I applied to, so I could not fully unplug.  However, I was not completely on top of my game either.  I checked my email every day for internship news and did my homework, but I dedicated most of my time during break to the purpose of taking an actual break.  Sometimes you need it, which is why we have it.  However, now that we are back in school, it is like I was never gone.

I heard back from two of the one dozen internships I applied to over break, and unfortunately did not move on in their hiring process, but that is not stopping me.  I hopped on to LinkedIn and Handshake the first night back on campus and set up a system.  I researched and selected several jobs from each site and moved each to their own tab.  I like to organize them by paid or non-paid, location, due date, and qualifications.  That way I can organize the order that I apply to them in based on how I should tailor my resume and when I should complete each one.  This is a very helpful strategy, at least for myself, because when we are dealing with school work and extracurriculars on top of job searching, we need all of the organization we can get.

I plan on applying to my new list over the course of the week.  There is something about filling out an organized schedule for my week and its workload that makes me feel like I am way more in control of my life than I probably am.

Speaking of managing time, I recently got a peer leader position for the Body Project Collaborative on campus.  I am very excited to start leading workshops, but first must go through a training course.  The course is all day Saturday and Sunday, meaning I am going to have to find time for homework.  I plan on dedicating all of Friday, as I do not have class, to completing as much homework as I can in order to prevent a stressful Sunday night.

I am passionate about social topics such as the media’s influence on body image and gender norms; I know I will enjoy facilitating Body Project workshops and developing my leadership skills.  Another plus side to getting the position is updating my resume, an activity that I always have fun with.  Adding experience always gives me a little boost of confidence.

Overall, getting back from spring break and settling into my routine once again has been fulfilling.  I am excited to get back to work and hopefully will receive some good news from internships within the next couple of weeks.

The Silent Group Chat and My Routine

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A routine is something that many of us cannot help but have.  It comes with the inevitable structure of our time, whether professional or academic.  We have class from 10:00am – 10:50am, then from 1:15pm – 2:30pm.  One day will probably work from 9am – 5pm.  I know that I am not the only one who creates a pattern in my daily actions that correlates to certain times of the day.  What I didn’t know, however, was how much I rely on that routine to get stuff done.  How did I come to this realization, you ask?  Parents weekend.

I love Family weekend.  Not only because I normally get free food out of it, but also because I enjoy the company of my family.  This Family weekend was a little different than my last, however, because last time my parents didn’t exactly come.  I am pretty sure they went skiing, which is honestly a fair alternative that I would probably choose over visiting myself given the opportunity.  This time around, I got the whole gang, including my little brother who happened to be touring both Pitzer College and Claremont McKenna College.  On top of my family actually being here, two of my friends flew home to Seattle to see visit home, and another two of my friends had their families come visit.

Now I can see how one would fail to find the problem in this scenario, but my friends play a huge role in the upkeep of my routine.  We get every meal together, go to the gym together, and do our homework together every day.  Yes, we are a productive group.  If something happens and someone’s schedule changes, we have the group chat to coordinate timing and meet-ups.  This past weekend, the group chat was silent.  I’ve never experienced the silent group chat.  Sure, I have no idea when I’m supposed to eat lunch, but everything’s fine.

So, without the group chat constantly reminding me of how my friends are managing their time, I somehow naturally forget how to manage my own.  The consequences consisted of spending an entire Saturday long boarding around campus with my dad and brother as opposed to writing a five page essay on the role of institutions within varying economic theories.  I do not regret procrastinating in order to spend time with my family, because this is just one weekend out of the year.  I do however realize the importance of sticking to my routine even when key factors to my schedule are missing, such as my friends.

The biggest consequence, at least for me, of mismanaging my time would be the emails.  I can make up for lost time when writing an essay, mainly because I simply enjoy writing, but ignoring my email for a day was the biggest mistake of my week.  I opened my computer Sunday morning to about 47 unread emails, each one a notification of a potential internship from job boards on LinkedIn and Glassdoor.

So the majority of my Sunday was spent not on actual homework but on catching up with internship suggestions and organizing my options.  With the added work of internship applications on top of our academic homework, time management becomes even more important.  While I love spending every moment that I can with my friends, I need to focus on my individual routine the next time I decide to ignore my work for a day.  It is great to have others to help support your organization and motivate you to go workout or write your essay, but I would advise not becoming too reliant on that support system, or you may have to read through 47 job emails.

Managing Deadline Stress

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In the last week I have found myself extremely stressed about upcoming internship deadlines.  This stress comes amidst looming paper deadlines and the stress that comes from the semester hitting its stride.  The endless applications and emails to send out have been especially weighing.  It happens every year but it doesn’t mean it’s any less difficult. Entertainment specifically is stressful because its application process comes late.  With summer rapidly approaching, it’s hard not knowing what your plans are.  Here are a few things I am trying to remember to do as deadlines become more stressful.

Break up larger tasks:

I find that I am most stressed when I think about all I should accomplish in its totality.  That looming to-do list leads to needless anxiety.  It has been helpful to break down the bigger tasks into more manageable parts.  You can only do so much at once.  Accomplishing a specific, small goal towards a larger task gives you a sense of satisfaction.  And during stressful times, it can be a much-needed boost.

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Mix up your to-do’s:

Writing cover letters for hours on end is not only monotonous but can be counterproductive.  I have found that I do my best work on tasks in small bursts, as inspiration strikes.  When I sit down to be “productive” I have a small list of tasks to complete.  As I lose interest in one, I immediately have something else to turn to.  That way I am still productive while giving my brain time to think of the right bullet point on a resume or turn of phrase for a cover letter.  This prevents working time from getting to monotonous.

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Breathe:

The best thing you can do is to take a deep breath.  It will all work out one way or another and while doing something about the future is good, stressing needlessly is counterproductive.

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Although times can get tough, there are manageable things you can do to accomplish all you set your mind to!

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It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint

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The first week back from winter break is always a little hectic.  The days seem to stretch on for a week, and yet the week seems to last only a day.  Coming back from a month of Christmas cookies and relaxation, I felt more than ready to throw myself back in the game of homework and internship applications.  The one problem with a month’s worth of energy built up in your brain is that you may overestimate your work capacity.

By Monday evening, after my roommate and I had settled in, I already had about twelve tabs open on my laptop.  Half of those were different internships, the other half consisted of handshake, Linkedin, the Scripps student portal, and so on.  My adrenaline, having been dormant for several weeks, was released during the online internship search and all of a sudden I felt like I could either run a marathon or run for President and probably win either way.  A classic mistake.

I made the impulsive decision that night to try and add an extra course to my schedule about history and media, then I emailed my dad in a frenzy asking whether or not I should minor in Marketing, Media Studies, or History.  I then emailed my older cousin, asking her to review and edit my resume.  By Tuesday morning I was enrolled in five courses, had an appointment with Career Planning & Resources about internship applications, and another appointment with SAGE (Study Abroad and Global Education) about finding the right program for my semester abroad next year.  After going to three classes that day, I realized I needed to start several applications for some political internships in Washington DC, read about one-hundred pages before class the next day, and call my aunt for some information on a potential connection with a campaign internship.  Needless to say, by Tuesday night, the thought of writing another cover letter made me want to hide under my Rams blanket forever (go Rams).

Life lessons are usually something you think about years after the fact.  For example, say someone, who will remain nameless, spent hundreds of dollars on coffee every year in high school and did not realize the consequences of poor money management until college, and now must limit her coffee intake.  Do not, under any circumstances, fall into the trap of expensive coffee.That is an important lesson that took me half a decade learn.  This week, I learned the lesson of career patience in the matter of 48 hours.  I am not saying that pounding out several applications, setting up several appointments, coming up with a course schedule for the next two years, and overloading on classes all in one night is a bad thing.  It is great to have those days where you briefly conquer the world.  However, if you go about your day thinking you have to conquer the world, the stress can weigh you down.  Yes, internships have application deadlines, and yes, it is great to plan ahead, but this week I learned that trying to meet every deadline in one day is not going to help me in the long run.  If applications are not due for at least another month, there is no reason I need to finish them by the end of the week.

Part of time management is learning the consequences of overworking yourself.  It can be just as unproductive as procrastinating.  The first week back is always a little hard, because I have to get back into the groove of things.  I am happy to say that I now feel like I have figured out my schedule and am ready to tackle those applications once again, just maybe not all at once.