Time management is key for students

By: Joshua Bowling

Two jobs, five classes, music lessons, dinner with the family, and a movie with friends.

That’s what my week looks like.

When I first started college in the fall of 2013, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

I quickly learned, however, that time management was the one thing I needed to master.

As an honors student, I need to take an honors class every semester.

These usually have more homework than a regular course does.

I was between jobs for a period close to two months during my first semester.

As a result, I began to throw myself into my homework, making sure I earned the highest grades possible.

Come October of 2013, though, I was gainfully employed.

I wasn’t quite sure how to spin the plates of employment and education, but I made it work.

Homework, a job, family life, and social life all compete for your attention. The one force that unites them all is time management.

Time management is easy to neglect, but it is crucial to succeeding in college.

When you have several professors, each giving you assignments, a boss giving you tasks which must be completed, and a family that needs attention, it can appear overwhelming.

Two things are necessary to learn: time management and a good work ethic.

It’s easy to wake up, look at the calendar, and go right back to sleep.

When you are working and going to school, having a good work ethic can become an easy-come-easy-go attribute.

Getting in the groove of the week and sliding through it all without a second thought can be easy.

It is just as easy, however, to look at all the work piling up and begin to panic.

That is where time management comes into play.

When I first started college and saw the free day planners being handed out by school faculty, I thought, “I don’t need that, I have a calendar hanging on my wall.”

Planning my schedule day-to-day has proved most important to me, though.

Worrying about a busy schedule achieves nothing, but planning out everything which must be completed and working hard to complete those tasks is what you have to do.

Time management and work ethic go hand-in-hand when working your way through college.

When balancing family, work, and school, these two skills are – perhaps – the most valuable ones which you will learn.

  • Mesa Legend Staff

    These are archived stories from Mesa Legend editions before Fall 2018. See article for corresponding author.

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