About the Author:  Monica Frost (Nursing, Class of 2019) enjoys working and learning in the medical field. She enjoys reading and the outdoors. After graduating in May of 2019, she hopes to create a career in a nearby hospital as a Registered Nurse.

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Do’s:

Let’s say it’s the last few weeks before finals week here at Southern Vermont College (SVC), and you are feeling like you won’t make it. You have a couple papers to write, a few presentations to plan, and the never ending extra flow of homework to get through. There are some things that you can do to relieve the anxiety.

Take everything you have to do and put it in order from things that demand attention right away to things that can wait until a later time. For example, if you have a paper that’s due Friday and it is currently Monday, you have plenty of time to work on the paper. But if you have a presentation that is due in the same week as the paper, the best thing to do is to knock out what you feel more comfortable with. By this I mean if you are more comfortable writing a paper than a presentation, write the paper first and then spend time working on the presentation. Now I am not trying to say that you should put off the presentation, getting started on that and working on it ahead of time is also a wise choice.

Sometimes it’s best to take a breather and do something fun. When you are loaded with things to do, sometimes going out with friends or going home for the weekend to be with your family can help ease the stress. An article written by Lucia Peters called The 20 Best Things About College, Besides It Really Can Be The Best Years Of Your Life. All twenty of these things are one-hundred percent true. You can reinvent yourself while at college. You have a chance to meet new people because the chances of people from your town going to the same college as you is slim. That is unless you are at a community college close to home and everyone you know is going there. You will never have to worry about sweatpants being the wrong thing to wear because everyone else will be wearing them too. I highly recommend this article to anyone who is interested in it. It offers some great advice and helpful hints. Plus it is a funny read.

Dont’s:

When you are dealing with time management the absolute WORST thing you can do is procrastinate. Procrastination leads to a last minute scramble to try to get things done which results in work that is half-assed and not your absolute best. Do not say to yourself, “oh this can wait,” or “that teacher won’t mind if I turn this in late, they’re very laid back.”  Having this type of perception going into the school year is not a good strategy. Another thing that should be avoided when time management is involved is to never stay up all night doing an assignment. Even if you are doing it the day it was assigned, never stay up late just to finish something. Lack of sleep is really bad for your body. Your brain won’t function properly on lack of sleep. Not to mention that the work that you will complete while half asleep also won’t be very good. You might think it’s dynamite when you’re writing it at 2:00AM but when you’ve gotten some sleep, you will re-read it and think, “what does that say?!”

When in doubt of an assignment, check canvas. If you are unsure of when an assignment is due, canvas will always tell you. Another way to avoid this problem is to keep a planner. I find that keeping one of these planners is helpful because I can write down when assignments are due. For example, the planner I use is a monthly/Daily planner. It shows the month in a calendar view then it has pages with the specific day so I can write down what homework I have.

Time management can be one of your worst nightmares in college. But if you stick to these do’s and don’t’s, you might find yourself conquering time management.

Copyright © Monica Frost (2017) All Rights Reserved.