It is true that living without your parents and with a bunch of people at your age is a lot of fun. You will really have the time of your life in college. However, you should not forget about the main reason you are there – studying. Moreover, you will have a lot more responsibilities apart from doing your homework. You will have to attend various meetings and participate in different events. You will have to clean your room and do your laundry as well. In order to do all these things you need to have effective time management. This will allow you to balance between the studying and duties and the fun.

The first thing you have to do is get an organizer. You have to start using it from day one. You should note down and enter all important events once you are notified about them. These include tests, exams and meeting with tutors. You should always take your organizer with you. Do not miss to go over it regularly considering the events for the week and even for the month ahead.

Planning is the key to successful time management. Once you enter a new even in your organizer you have to estimate how much time and effort you will need to put in the preparation for it. For instance, if you have to make a presentation in two weeks, it is best to plan working on it on a number of days of this week and next. Generally, it is a good idea not to leave anything for the last minute in college. Most of the things you have to do on your own require serious work so you have to be certain that you plan ahead just to be on the safe side.

You have to organize your schedule for the next week every Friday. This will allow you to do some extra work on the weekend if necessary. You have to start the planning by making a simple to do list. You have to write down all your tasks for the coming week putting the most important one first. You have to mark the urgent tasks as well. It is up to you to evaluate each task in terms of importance and urgency. After you have completed the list you have to allocate each assignment to a certain day of the week. It is best to make an estimate of how long it will take you complete every different task.

You have to have flexibility in your schedule so that you can effectively provide for any unexpected tasks if necessary. As said earlier planning ahead and starting your work well in advance is extremely beneficial. By doing this you will be able to postpone tasks for the sake of urgent ones. It is also a great idea for you to plan your time for recreation and fun. In this way if emergency work comes up you will always be able to cancel a basketball game with your friends or miss a party.

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