Managing Your Time Successfully

Time management is a bit more complex because there are many considerations and no specific formula exists. Everyone has to evaluate his or her personal situation and abilities and figure out what works best.

Answering All of Your Responsibilities

Most everyone today has to juggle commitments. Ideally, you can make a single schedule for how your day or week or month will go and stick to it, but, in reality, new commitments arise and events are cancelled or reprioritized. The picture is constantly changing.

Not everything is within your control, which can make it difficult to stick to your initial plan. So you will need to constantly prioritize and reprioritize to adapt to the changing nature of your obligations over time. For instance, if you have a big work project due one week, you should anticipate not having as much time to devote to school during that period. You will also need to take responsibility for those decisions.

Using a Personal Calendar

Creating your own personalized calendar can be a helpful tool for tracking and managing your responsibilities, showing you how your personal, professional, and school life overlap. The most successful person has one calendar that shows all of his or her obligations and plans. This technique can enable you to manage your life much more effectively. You can use a day planner, a wall or desk calendar, Microsoft Outlook, your PDA, or whatever works for you. The important thing is not how you track the demands on your time but that you do track them.

To find more information and tools on time management, do a Web search on time management and time management tools.

Saying No

People often have a problem saying no to others, but it is OK to say no gracefully and for a good reason. No one wins when you accept a responsibility you know you cannot fulfill or when you realize you will not be able to meet an obligation but you do not speak up. Saying no is not about being cruel, unresponsive, or a slacker; rather it is about being honest and effective. Now that you are in school, the need to say no may arise more frequently than before because you have more commitments.