time management

Managing your time in college is more complicated than setting a schedule. Among other things, it's also important to regularly ask yourself, "Am I involved in activities that are important to me, or do I participate in them because it's important to someone else?"

It's not uncommon to join a campus club or group as a favor to a friend or because you've read that membership will look good on your future applications. But, if you're not feeling it, it's better to move on.

Sometimes, the best plan is to take a break from the chaos and embrace a little bit of 'me time.'

Especially when you're nearing the end of an intense research experience or semester, it can be hard to focus. And even the little things can seem to take more effort than they should. The crushing feeling of "responsibly overload" always happens at the worst time--when you have soooo much to do and most of it is tied to a deadline.

Even if you're given the option of showing up 'whenever,' schedule your research time because doing so will lead to more advantages than having a spontaneous schedule.

Although there are several advantages to scheduling your lab time, three are:

If your research supervisor, PI, or labmate asks, “How late can you stay at the lab today?” don’t answer with: “Whenever—it doesn’t matter.” Because it does matter.

If you give an open-ended answer, you might find yourself finishing at 4 AM, exhausted and hangry (especially if you already ate your snacks and the vending machine takes your money without giving you food).

Remember, research might not be a 9 to 5 activity for the labmate who’s asking. Always give a time window even if it isn’t precise such as “4:30 to 5:30,” or your absolute cut-off time “7 PM.”

A few weeks into the new semester (or quarter if applicable) is the perfect time to do a quick self-assesment. Ask yourself this simple question: "Am I finding enough time to study?"

If you do this self-assesment before your first set of exams, you still have time to make some changes, if needed. If you wait too long, it might be too late to do much about it, and will only cause you more stress.