It is 1 a.m. and I’m doing what I do best, procrastinating. I need to take a shower. I need to finish the homework left over from Homecoming weekend.
I need to care. But I’m here, thinking about how long the electricity stayed on while the Titanic was sinking and how no one was electrocuted in the water. It’s rather baffling to me. I’m also praising myself for knowing every word to The Eagles’ “Hotel California” at the age of 10.
Don’t judge me.
I guess the reason the song resonated in my head as I was putting off my heavy workload with unnecessary tasks like sweeping my room and changing my sheets was because of the lyric “we are all just prisoners here of our own device.”
Here I am, a prisoner to my own time management skills, or lack thereof.
As a college student, there are not enough hours in the day. It is difficult to master the art of managing time without our constant, not-so-well-deserved breaks. We have unlimited distractions at our disposal. You know the times when you binge on social media, cookies or Netflix to avoid the million other things you have to do.
Finding the time to eat, sleep, study and have a decent social life is the real trick to surviving college.
There are a few things I have found helpful for managing time while at school. A planner is not one of them. I’m not suggesting not keeping a planner, however. Instead, use your weekly planner to create a separate to-do list for every two or three days. You will feel much more accomplished with even one task completed when you cross it off the list.
Another tip I find useful is breaking up your tasks into smaller ones. For example, if you have a research paper due in five days, do your research on days one and two. Write an outline the next day, and then begin work on the actual paper. This makes the writing process much simpler and less stressful.
Time management is something we all have to work to perfect. It’s crucial to our success as students to schedule and plan things out. By doing so, we become less frazzled, happier individuals.
Don’t be a prisoner of time; find a way that works for you, whether it be to-do lists, splitting up tasks or working ahead.
Column by Hunter Harrell, Assistant Features Editor