8 Effective Time Management Strategies for College-Bound Students

Before we send off our college-bound students, it’s pertinent to provide them with tips and tricks for how to best budget their time. We’ve taught our high school clients productive time-management skills as they pertain to juggling school and test prep, but there is a significant difference between time management in high school and college.

This is particularly relevant for your clients who find themselves in the limbo of provisional acceptance, rolling admissions, wait lists, or gap years.

Without parents helping to make sure they get out of bed on time, bells ringing to signal class time, and teacher reminders of upcoming projects and exams, some college-bound students will have a pretty rude awakening once they realize that college is all about autonomous time management. 

So, before our students head off to college, let’s take advantage of the time that we still have with them to work on and strengthen those essential time-management skills.

8 Time-Management Strategies

1. Use a Personal Organizer

Organization is always the key when it comes to effective time management. And relying on memory alone is not going to cut it in college. To avoid missing deadlines, students should get into the habit of keeping all of their due dates in one, easily accessible place that they will view daily. Whether on a calendar or in a planner—be it analog or digital—having one organized place to keep those deadlines is paramount to successfully managing time. 

2. Develop a Routine

Every college semester is going to look a little different as far as scheduling goes. Some semesters may be front-loaded with more classes earlier in the week or in the day, and some semesters may be a bit more balanced. Once a semester begins, it is essential for students to find a routine that works best for them. Not just for classes and classwork, but also for waking up in the morning, fitting in adequate time for meals, making time to socialize and exercise, and (of course!) for getting enough sleep. A solid, reliable routine can do wonders for combatting anxiety, procrastination, and burnout.

As students adapt to life post-high school, they will also be learning when they do their best work. What time of day are they the most productive? Are they more alert in the morning or at night? This will help guide them when choosing their class times each semester, and when they should be carving out time for classwork and studying. 

Additionally, they’ll be finding where they are able to be most productive. Do they work best in their bedroom or at the kitchen table? Will they be more productive studying in their dorm, the library, or the lounge? Part of their finding an effective routine may also include working around their choice location’s hours.

3. Choose Attainable Goals

It is very easy to get swamped by projects and exams in college. Many of those assignments are on a larger scale, and most are win-or-bust for grades. It is important for students to try and tackle the smaller, shorter, simpler tasks to start before moving on to the larger, more complex assignments. Doing so will help them feel more productive and accomplished, and ease the anxiety that naturally comes with feeling overwhelmed (remember the Procrastination Doom Loop?). Also, multitasking assignments only leads to being less productive; each and every assignment requires undivided time and attention. 

4. Forge Ahead

After establishing a routine and choosing attainable goals, the best move a college student can make is to move ahead. College-level work includes a lot of larger assignments like research papers. More often than not, these research papers are outlined in the syllabus from Day 1. If they have a basic idea of what that research paper is about, it’s never too early to start gathering resources and beginning the outline. 

It’s imperative for college-bound students to understand that college-level work cannot be put off until the last minute. Gone are the days of shelving large assignments until the night before or cramming before a test—the earlier students start working on or preparing for assignments the better.

5. Create Productive Study Skills

We all know that simply looking over one’s notes is not the same as studying. College students should be in the habit of looking over their notes regularly—not just when an exam is looming. Studying needs to be an allotted time spent using tried-and-true study strategies such as flashcards, quizzing, and practice. With so many different types of classes to study for in college, students will find that some strategies will only work best for certain classes. Help your students to build a toolbox of studying techniques to choose from so that they can figure out which strategy will work best for any given exam.

6. Stay Focused

Dorm rooms are small, about the size of a childhood bedroom. Also similar to a childhood bedroom, dorms become the dumping ground for everything that they own. Students forget that the simple act of tidying up can do wonders for their focus. So, while they may still dump their backpack on the floor, sporting equipment in the corner, and laundry on their bed, it’s really important for them to try their best to keep their desks/study spaces clutter-free.

Another important tip for staying focused is to use technology responsibly. While involved in assignments or studying, students need to avoid the back-and-forth of messaging apps, the black hole of social media, the time-suck of their news feed, as well as games and websites on their computers and phones that are not related to schoolwork. 

7. Schedule Breaks

Learning to incorporate breaks throughout a daily routine is an invaluable lesson and can reap benefits physically, mentally, and emotionally. It’s a form of self-care that many college students don’t always think to include in their daily lives. 

Whether scheduling 15-20 minute breaks during study sessions or carving out an hour or two to take a walk with a friend, read a book, grab coffee with their roommate, scheduling breaks are vital for mental and physical health. College can be a high-pressure time, so teaching our students that it’s OK to take care of themselves is really important.

8. Know Your Limits

The old saying “don’t bite off more than you can chew'' is a mantra that college students should be repeating to themselves—especially when it’s time to choose their classes. They need to make sure that they understand that while it may seem like a good idea to enroll in as many classes as they have the prerequisites for, they need to remember that for every hour spent in class, they will need at least 2-3 hours of study time. 

Not only that, but they need to also consider life outside of the classroom: jobs, family, friends, extracurriculars. Having a well-rounded, balanced college schedule is vital for their mental and emotional health and will keep them from getting burned out.

These 8 important strategies can be discovered and practiced during the college-prep process. Take advantage of your remaining time left with your college-bound students and help them to establish and build on these essential time-management skills.

Your ability to help prepare students, not only for getting into college, but also for what’s next can be a tremendous value-add to your tutoring offerings. This degree of personal attention and support can go a long way to differentiate you from competitors that offer more rote, traditional, and one-size-fits-all college-prep services.

To find out how Clear Choice Prep can help you and your tutoring business provide the best services and support for your students, contact us today.