Time flies when you’re having fun. Having too much fun would therefore kill all your time. Have no fun, and you’d be stuck in a slow, endless loop.

Time management and a proper schedule are the proverbial keys to success and peace of mind.

November is usually the time a lot of us are trying to salvage the semester. This month is our wake-up call. Most people are reinvigorated and trying to save their grades. 

Maybe they didn’t do well on a previous midterm, or have been thus far ignoring their work. Whatever the reason, at this point, a major motivator for students at this point in the year is bringing their grades back up. 

There’s no better way of saving our grades than efficient time management and scheduling.

Weekends at the University are full of life. The students buzz with excitement, the streets are teeming with life, and pure pleasure permeates the air. The weekends are a catharsis for us. After a long week of school, relaxation is the number one priority, and rightly so.

But something most people don’t realize, or outright ignore, is that the weekends are also bursting with time. Time to party, hang out with friends and even study. 

There’s no reason to cram all your required studying into the weekdays, instead we should be taking time to study on the weekend as well. Balancing your academics between the weekdays and weekends is extremely crucial to efficient success.

Most students want the entire weekend to themselves — and so do I — but this attitude is detrimental in the long run. Allotting time to academics on the weekend is beneficial. Doing so alleviates some pressure on the weekdays. Also, it keeps our brain fresh and helps us retain the information learnt over the week. If we do no studying at all, we’re at risk for forgetting things due to the long gap.

This is where time management comes in. It’s obvious that college students have a lot to do and think about. What would benefit us the most is a comprehensive schedule.

Not a schedule that only comprises of classes, but everything you could think of. Plan out your classes, breaks, homework, quizzes, parties, workouts, money, etc. Put anything feasible in there.

A schedule like this would help us keep track of even the smallest things, and although such a detailed schedule requires a little time and research, the alternative is much worse.  

Lack of time management affects us in more ways than one. Chronic procrastination, decline of academic performance, lack of sleep, and poor diet are all hallmarks of poor time management.

In fact, according to the University at Buffalo’s counseling office, about 25 percent of students become chronic procrastinators.(http://education.seattlepi.com/lack-time-management-affects-college-students-1093.html) Procrastinating is not a good sign.

Therefore, even if such a schedule seems like an extravagance, another way of managing time is simply cutting down on procrastination.

Procrastination is the arch nemesis of time management. Emerge victorious against it, and you’re good to go. Not procrastinating will vastly increase the amount of work you get done.

A good solution for procrastination is studying in the library, as it is much more difficult to put off work when surrounded by people doing their work as well.

While it’s true that many people are efficient and organized, most aren’t. That’s why time management skills are vital to us college students. Especially during November. This month is our saving grace. 

We’ve got to use whatever we can to help us, whether it’s detailed schedules or tips to stop procrastination. Time management and scheduling should be the foundation. It’s best we start now, rather than when it’s too late. 

Harsha is a freshman in Engineering.

[email protected]