Time management is a skill that most people will benefit from, period. It's a skill that's hard to master but when you do, it makes your life so much easier. With being a full time college student doing a BTEC Level 3 course, I have to have good time management skills in order to do everything that I do. I'll be talking you through my key tips on how I stay organised and manage my time.

I'm a very enthusiastic student. I recently got my grades back for my first year at college and I got the highest possible mark. I put that down to the sheer effort I put into my work. But the funniest thing is, is that I would often sit in class and relax - chill on my phone, talk to friends and do little bits of work here and there. People pick up on it and ask how I seemed to do so well when I don't seem to do anything.

The last year at college I was part of the student council and Student Union, so it was rare if I didn't have at least one meeting every week. I also was still running my blog (admittedly, it did take a backseat for the final few months) and I was always going out with friends for coffee. I always like to have some 'me' time and I managed to finish Gossip Girl and Jane The Virgin by the time my 9 months were up during my first year.

I'm going to let you in on how I managed to balance everything and still have time for myself. Most people believe you need to have and hourly schedule but you really don't. If you have a way that works for you, stick to it! I seem to have my way and that keeps me relaxed and calm which is why I want to share it with you because we don't want the stress of loading yourself with too much to do.

I've ranked my tips in chronological order as to how I do them.

Knowing The Project

Because I can have a minimum of three projects going on at a time, sometimes it could be five or six, you have to know your project well. We often have two briefs given to us. The first would be a formative, which means that it was just a practice. The second would be a summative which was our final project that was going to be graded. The summative would always come after the formative. The key for me was to do the formative to the best of my ability and re-submit for the summative after making a few tweaks based off of the feedback we had.

There are often many different tasks within one project which you have to do so knowing what you need to do is essential. There's no point doing one task at a time if they interlink too. By knowing your project well, by asking questions and clarifying before you even start means that you will 100% know what you're doing until the very end and that makes your life ten times easier.

To-Do Lists

To Do Lists are my thing, I love making cute ones and I always do them when we've had our brief. Putting your plans on paper is a great way of seeing and reminding yourself on what you've got to do. You shouldn't lose track of anything, especially if you make on the moment you get the brief. I can make at least three checklists during one project, sometimes they're long and sometimes they're short ones (often when I'm coming to the end of a project just to ensure everything's right).

Set Your Own Deadlines

There's always one big deadline at the end of a few weeks for a project. Our tutors often sets us target deadlines which are okay but that puts a bit of stress on you in my opinion. You know your own limits so use that. Set yourself your own deadlines. Not a deadline like 'this should be done by the 6th', more like 'I want this part to be finished by the end of the week'. By not setting a date, the stress is immediately lifted. You know it has to be finished in order to move on.

I believe in setting myself more time to do a project then I know I'll need. If I can do something in three days, I'll set myself a week to do the task. This then allows me to have time out for me, to blog, to go out with friends, attend meetings, etc. Look at the final deadline and plan it. Which leads me on to my next point....

Weekly/Monthly Plans

Like to-do lists, making yourself a calendar can be really helpful. A lot of people say 'I'll do my work for two hours, then move onto this for 1hour 45 mins, then...'. That's stressing you out, a lot. It's a lot of pressure - it's setting yourself unrealistic deadlines. I look at my time and plan it, not in hours but in half days.

I make myself a weekly or monthly calendar and often say 'on Wednesday morning I'll do some photography work then in the afternoon I'll do some blog work before meeting Niamh'. I can then decide on how much work I want to do on that day. I'll most likely work for three hours on a project in the morning or two hours in the afternoon. Some days I'll spend a whole day doing work.

Stopping

I always have a cut off point. This can be forgotten if I'm a little behind schedule. But half and hour before my sister comes back from school, so at 2:30, I'll stop doing any college work. The evening is all about me and my family. I'll probably blog too at some point but I'm not over working my brain.

Because I've managed my time like I have, I know that I can take some time out to relax. By setting myself a longer mini deadline than I need, I can take things a bit slower and spend that extra time on myself.


Not everyone will find this useful, you may have your own way of doing things but this has helped me. I always thought I was busy but now I look back at the past year, I spent most of my time chilling thanks to my time management!

If you have your own tips, please let me know! I'm interested in finding other ways to manage my time too.




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