Time Strategies

(Photo from Vimeo)

The schedule we agreed will likely work best for me is as follows:

Monday: Reading A & B

Wednesday: Storytelling & Blog comments

Friday: Project & Project Feedback

I will work for 2 hours on each of these days. With how my schedule looks at the moment, I will work in the mornings, which is usually when I think the most clearly anyway. If my internship interferes with those times, I'll shift it to later in the day, or change days if I have to. Right now my schedule is pretty open since I only have 2 classes on campus, so I will be available to do work much of the time. 

I read The Psychology of Checklists, because I love making them, and I like that other people think it's a good strategy. A couple of years into college, I started having breakdowns about how much work I had to do for my classes and how overwhelming it was to figure out when to do what, and my husband talked me into using a checklist. I use Google Keep, which is pictured in the image above. I keep a list of homework with due dates, so that I can cross off assignments as I finish them. I have had people ask if I want to work on an assignment together, and we plan on it, but if they procrastinate too much I end up doing the assignment alone, because crossing things off the list reduces my stress level. I also keep my grocery list, a list of days my daughter has off from school and important appointments, and other little notes of things I need to remember in Google Keep.

Last semester I used Keep less for homework and started writing all of the important due dates for papers, test dates, etc on the calendar on my laptop. It's a Mac and I don't have an iPhone so I can't sync them, which is disappointing, but I usually have my laptop with me in class and other meetings, and when I don't I can just jot things down in Keep. Then I enter those things on my calendar when I get home. Before using these techniques, my entire desk was covered in post it notes, which worked well unless I forgot to bring the grocery post it with me. I think keeping a list in my phone and/or on my laptop is a bit more efficient. I still love post its, though.