4 Steps to Seize Control of Your Schedule
Have you ever felt overwhelmed or burnt out by the amount of work and number of tasks that you need to complete? As students we often feel immense pressure from ourselves, peers, and parents to be overachievers. We want to get straight A’s, become captains of our sports teams, be active members in our fraternity or sorority, and volunteer to support the causes we care about --all while having a social life and playing it cool, like we have our lives under control.
So how can we stay afloat? How do we know what to prioritize and how to build a schedule that brings us closer to having it all? Here is your four step guide to better time management:
1. Set Goals You Actually Care About
A lot of times, we take on too many goals and tasks because we feel like we are supposed to, or other people tell us that we should. It’s rare that we set goals that are truly aligned with our values and make us want to achieve them. CEO and author, Elizabeth Grace Saunders talks about the negative consequences of a year-long reading goal driven only by insecurity in the face of professional peer pressure:
“If sitting down to read feels more like a chore, it’s unlikely they’ll make any progress — and they may feel badly for not achieving their goal when the year comes to a close. While the goal itself felt like it was something that fit the needs of their professional role, it didn’t match the individual’s preferences or ambitions. ”
In other words, she suggests that we reflect whether the goals we are setting are truly those we want to achieve rather than those society tells us we should achieve.
My friends, it’s time to ask yourself the hard questions:
“Is this goal/task/project aligned with my values?”
“Is this goal/task/project bringing me closer to what long-term success means to me?”
Everything you answered “no” to - scrap it. If it’s not adding value to your life or bringing you happiness, it’s probably taking precious time away from things that would, and as students we already have enough on our plates!
In short, set goals that align with your values. Consider what matters to you, then figure out what you need to do from there.
2. Break it Down
Congratulations! If you made it to this step, then you are already well on your way to taking control of your schedule. Once you have identified your goals, it’s time to break. them. down.
In her book, 168 Hours, Laura Vanderkam suggests a great methodology:
“Once you know what you’d like to do in the next year, you can break this down into what you’d like to do in the next month (120-240 hours) or week (30-60 hours). On Sunday nights, or before the start of the workweek, sit down and list the actionable tasks you need to do to advance you toward these goals. This is the key part: schedule them in, knowing exactly how long they will take. ”
That’s right. Literally block out chunks in your calendar - it’s called timeboxing. For me, I wanted to be more diligent about getting my workouts in. Just saying “I’ll work out three times a week” really didn’t last because something would always come up and I’d just say that I’d make up for it tomorrow. And... we all know how that story ends. Now, I have 4:30pm~6:00pm timeboxed in my calendar every Monday ~ Friday as “WORKOUT!!!” (yup, in all caps with three exclamation marks).
But sometimes we don’t know how long tasks are going to take. We end up underestimating or overestimating, which leads to either wasted time or unnecessary stress. The best way to figure this out is to start tracking your time. Time management experts suggest that somewhere around 30-minute blocks are best.
You’re probably thinking, “I’m a student, I already have so much to handle and now you’re also asking me to track how I spend my time?” Trust me, I’ve been there, so I’m going to share the easiest method I’ve come across to spare you the Excel spreadsheets of every 30 minutes in your day, or worse, scribbled notes in your Moleskine.
I started using Mana which digitized the process and gave me a comprehensive, data-driven view on how I spend my time 24/7. Yes, tracking time takes diligence but the returns on investment are huge.
Mana’s expert guides on time management helped me critically reflect on how I was spending my time to be able to create time for things I truly value like my health. With their constant encouragement and accountability, I was able to stick to my 4:30~6:00pm timeboxed workout schedule week after week, and the results have been amazing after hitting my targets for over 2 straight months! I’m really proud of those results knowing that 3 in 4 people give up their yearly fitness goals, most of them within 6 weeks or less!
So break down your value-based goals into actionable tasks, schedule them into your calendar by timeboxing them, and commit to those times. This is now an appointment you made with yourself.
3. Limit Your To-Do Lists
Now that you’ve scheduled time for the goals that matter to you, let’s narrow down the task to the day. What can you accomplish today that will bring you closer to your unique goals?
Time management is priority management. So how do we optimize our priority list and actually get things done? It’s interesting to ask yourself: are you prioritizing the schedule or scheduling the priority?”
“What is more important, doing the right thing or doing things rightly?”
The answers for seizing control of your schedule? Schedule the priority, and do the right thing.
Out of all the advice on time management and burnout management, the most realistic and helpful advice I’ve heard is: At the start of each day, or the night before, create a to-do list for the day, and purposefully limit it to 3~5 items that are most important for you to accomplish.
By only having 3~5 items on your to-do list you will feel less busy, not burn out, and actually get more done. Why?
It makes you prioritize, because when everything is important nothing is important. A 3 item list is much less daunting and is definitely more do-able than a 20 item list.
It leaves space for other things to come up. No matter how hard we try to schedule and avoid distractions, things come up. But having only 3 items on your list leaves space for you to address those surprises without feeling guilty.
It makes you feel productive and accomplished. While 3 important things a day might not be much, it’s 15 important things a week and 750 important things a year! Also, checking off all of your goals at the end of the day feels so great and gives us a huge confidence boost!
Create a 3~5 item to-do list everyday in order of priority. Start with the first item and before you know it, you’re well on your way to realizing all of your goals!
4. Make Commitment Part of Your Identity
Stick to your schedule. While this sounds really trivial, it is the most important step. Actually committing and following through with what you said you would do is a matter of personal integrity. Once you start breaking commitments to yourself, you lose trust in yourself and the whole system of self-discipline begins to crumble.
It’s okay if things don’t go as planned at times, that’s totally normal and a part of life - especially for us, students. But if you’re experiencing stress and burnout because what you are doing now is not working, be honest with yourself and change something.
Make commitment a part of your identity. Habit master and author, James Clear writes that the recipe to success is two-fold:
Decide the type of person you want to be
Prove it to yourself with small wins
This means to become the type of person who seizes control over their schedule. Say it to yourself everyday. Every time I feel like skipping my workout or procrastinating on something that’s on my to do list, I say to myself: “I am disciplined”, “I am committed” and remember that disciplined and committed people don’t make excuses or miss deadlines.
It takes time to truly believe it in your core. I know I’m certainly still in the process. (Sometimes I have to be really extra and say to myself, “I’m a time management queen” to even begin getting anything done). But with every day that you seize control of your schedule, you prove it to yourself and reinforce that identity, and I promise it gets easier.
So show up, especially on the days that you don’t feel like it, because you can commit.
Tired of being a burnout student and want to seize control of your schedule?
Stop setting goals for others. Set goals that you actually care about for yourself.
Break down goals by timeboxing them into your schedule. Start tracking your time for best results, and use Mana if you’re looking for an easy way to do it from your phone
Limit your daily to-do list to 3-5 priorities that are aligned with your goals.
Make commitment part of your identity. Say to yourself, “I am a time management master”. Start showing up for that you.
