5 Ways to Manage Your Time Effectively – By Ogundimu Oluwadamilola

One of my passion is to help people and share experiences to provoke them to believe they can do more than their limited expectation. Lately, I discovered that in our quest to “Step up” and change the pace of development in our personal life. It all begins with the mind. Your biggest asset is your mind. Today as we spend time discussing time management, if you will not accept these thoughts I share intellectually with your mind and decide to take action with your mind, today will just be an occurrence and mere say. One of the qualities of a serious person suffice is the art of time and life management. As students, we need to be aware of the fact that the University community is a complex one. It’s a world of no man’s business full of activities and funny enough, unlike primary school and high school, we got no teacher to follow us up and make sure we do the assignment, you read the book, you attend the classes.

Effective time management is very crucial to academic success. As endless as time is, you cannot hold onto it. Time is a free but it’s a non-renewable resource. Many students are controlled by activities instead of controlling activities.

So, what therefore Is time management?

It includes a range of skills used to manage time in accomplishing a set goal. The measure of a productive life on campus depends largely on how one manages his or her time.

The best students are not necessarily those who are smarter but those who use their time effectively.

Also, craving for academic excellence doesn’t mean shutting down all other facet of your life and spend the whole 24 hours in the library. That’s a boring life. As much as you aim for excellence, you must put God first and also develop other areas of your life.

Frankly, in today’s highly competitive world, if you are lucky enough to be in school you are holding a highly coveted spot desired by many.

The following are Five basic ways to manage your time effectively

Man, know thyself

The first step in determining a schedule is to know yourself.

Get Organised

AT the beginning of every semester purchase or make some type of scheduling note book. This may seem simple but you would be surprised how many people do not use this necessary instrument.

Always prepare a to-do list

There is this common saying, “Fail to plan, Plan to fail”. Daily set out what you want to achieve and jot them in your schedule pad and mark them in this kind if order; Your fixed commitment such as classes, tutorials, church and part time jobs are first considered.

Add in your study time, block off that section of your day reserved for studying. Organise your study time to coincide with times of the day when you are most awake and alert.

Mark in other non study activities; these are important but lower priority items. Always go round with your to-do list to review what’s next

Evaluate

After the end of each day, evaluate how much you have invested your time into the days activities and wherever you faltered improved in the next to-do list.

Lastly, plan some down time.

You are not a robot; I have a funny but true statement I say in Yoruba, “OKU O LE GBA B.Sc.” meaning a dead student can’t acquire B.Sc. Take time to rest and treat yourself.

Academic excellence comes with a price. Someone said its not easy living a programmed life. I would rather say its not easy living an organised life, So make efforts to be organised.

Henry Wadsworth said, the height by great, they weremen reached and kept were not attained by sudden to the night flight, but why their companions slept, they were busy toiling upwards in the night.

Ogundimu Oluwadamilola is a student of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. She is a life coach and motivational speaker. She can be reached via Email: dammyabike95@gmail.com