Student Blog: Booked and Busy: How I Manage My Schedule

Managing coursework, student involvement, friends, and good grades is a difficult thing to learn. In high school, the structured school days took the time management out of the hands of students. Now in college, with less structured days I have the ability to make my own routine from scratch. Learning how to divide my responsibilities took time, but I love the freedom of making my own schedule. 

I am very routine oriented. I need a routine in order to not feel crazy and all over the place. I love starting my week by planning everything out in my planner. It keeps me organized and less overwhelmed being able to divide my responsibilities across the week. It keeps me from accidentally double booking myself along with giving me a good visual of each week. Everything is color coded which might be a littttttttle over the top, but it keeps me organized. 

With assignments, most of my stuff is due at 11:59 on Sundays. I don’t love having to do my homework on the weekends, and putting it off makes me anxious. I use my planner to decide what days I’m going to work on what assignment to keep myself from being overwhelmed. Every once and a while I find myself waiting until the last minute to do a discussion post and it isn’t my best work when I procrastinate. I am currently working on a 2000 word essay on Cabaret. It’s due in three weeks, but I got a head start because of the amount of effort that needs to be put into it. 

Making and maintaining friendships in college is super important. My Best Friend is my roommate, so I get to spend a ton of time with her. I usually spend my weekends going out with friends, or just hanging out. Emma (my roomie) and I love going to trails to walk on the weekends. It's a great way to get outside and disconnect from school and anything stressing me out. In order to maintain good grades (and quite honestly my sanity), I don’t go out during the week. I go to the University of Central Florida, a school with a decent party scene at least compared to the school I transferred from. Everything is okay in moderation, including going out. I love having fun with my friends, but I stay in during the week. After my homework is done I do enjoy just watching Below Deck or a movie with my roommate (I recently got her to watch Falsettos and we both sobbed thank you Andrew Rannells). 

It definitely took me a bit to establish a routine, but I know how I work best and I need a routine to thrive. With the adjustment with transferring schools, I had to create a new routine in my new environment. I absolutely love the way my days and weeks look now:)