Time Strategies

Time management is one of the most important things I've learned in my four years in college. Coming from high school, where everything is meticulously structured, to college, where I have to choose how to spend the time in my day, was a difficult transition at first. I struggle when I don't have a set schedule, and I've worked hard to organize my day so I can spend my time wisely. I used to think of my day as a 9-5 workday, but as I've transitioned into grad school, I've had to readjust because my classes are at night and I can't well start my day at 1:30 — but I can't be working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. straight! I'm working on it, though.

My procrastination habit has certainly improved over my four years of college, too. I really liked the article about "just starting" — it really is true that it's easier to accomplish more once you give yourself momentum by doing just one thing. I also like to use the "five-minute rule": If you can accomplish a task in five minutes — tidying up your room, for example, or getting started on a paper — you should just do it, and then the feeling of accomplishing one task often (but not always) gives you momentum to accomplish even more.

The article about the psychology of checklists really resonated with me, too. I knew that checking off items on a to-do list made me feel good, but I hadn't given much thought to why. Knowing now that it is the result of the release of dopamine makes so much sense, and it definitely encourages me to keep using checklists.

Crossing items off a checklist causes a release of dopamine in our brains, according to Lauren Marchese. (Source: The Fox Group)