With the winter holidays long gone and all those new years goals floating in the back of your mind, you may find yourself struggling to keep up with all your work, hobbies, and social obligations. No matter what your hobbies or your workload, residents of student apartments in Austin can always benefit from time management tips to promote increased productivity and reduced stress.
Know a friend or neighbor living in UT student apartments who could use these time management tips? Go ahead and share this post with them! Now without further ado, let’s talk time management tips.
Have a Calendar and Use It
When we say calendar, we don’t just mean a list of birthdays and holidays. We mean a centralized, master calendar marking every due date, every Zoom class, every virtual study session with a friend. A calendar like this is particularly handy for time management because it helps you create work-back schedules for all your bigger projects (planning out each step needed to reach the finish line) and block off time for focused work while ensuring your social life doesn’t conflict with productivity. An online calendar is best, because you can access it from anywhere and get notified on your phone when an important event is coming up so you never forget a thing.
Organize Your To-Do List Ahead of Time
Having a to-do list that you stick to is sometimes harder than it seems. You’ve no doubt had plenty of days when you had 20 things you wanted to get done and only did two of them, or you got lots of things done, but you still feel like you’re behind on the important things.
That’s why you need to be strategic about when you create to-do lists and how you organize them for maximum productivity and minimum stress. Whenever possible, make your to-do list ahead of time, not as you go—ideally the night before, right before you go to sleep. That way it’s off your mind as you’re trying to fall asleep, and you know when you get up exactly where you need to start.
Organize your to-do list with the most important task first and start working on it early. That way even if you don’t get to everything, you can feel great about your progress. It can also help to save your most challenging tasks for times of day when you feel most the most “on,” which can vary from person to person. Another great tactic is to group similar tasks together so that you get that in-the-zone feeling instead of having to constantly switch modes.
Reduce Distractions & Avoid Multitasking
No one can be 100% on all the time, and taking breaks is important, but constant distractions and attempts to multitask can do more harm than good. Find an environment where you can focus—really focus—instead of being distracted with notifications, social media, or interruptions. This can be especially challenging during times of lockdown, since the boundaries between work space, hangout space, and relaxation space are likely blurred. If you need to, consider setting aside certain times of day where you turn off notifications on your phone or where you completely avoid using your computer and other devices.
Whether you turn off notifications or not, try to schedule blocks of time where you focus on a single task, then schedule in short breaks every half hour or so and longer breaks every few hours. You’ll get a lot more done and you’ll get more out of your breaks because you won’t feel guilty for stealing time from your work in order to take them.
Learn To Say “No”
You can’t do everything and setting boundaries is healthy. If you’re a person who tends to find yourself stretched thin with a hundred different obligations, it might be time to strip away some of those obligations. It’s okay to say, “I don’t have time for that, I’m sorry” or “I can’t help this time, but I’d love to help next time.”
When you can’t say no, delegate where possible, or ask for help. A friend might have the bandwidth to schedule that virtual event, help you proofread that paper, or even take your pet to that vet appointment.
That’s all the time management tips we have right now! If you’d like to see any future tips and recommendations from us in the future, make sure you bookmark our blog page for easy access to upcoming posts. Finally, if you don’t want to miss out on special promotions, community updates, and events at our apartments near UT Austin, follow us on Instagram!