How to Successfully Budget Your Time in College

Oh college, a time filled with new experiences, growing friendships, and, let's not forget, overwhelming amounts of work. So many things pop up in the blink of an eye that one often wonders, "how the hell am I ever going to graduate on time?" It certainly is a stressful period, but knowing how to manage your time can alleviate the pressures of being a student so you can have some fun.

The best thing you can do to budget to your time is buy a planner and make good use of it. It sounds so simple, but writing down tasks for each day and checking them off once they're completed makes your responsibilities easier to manage. Sometimes we feel as though there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done, but planning out a daily schedule helps you become an efficient student, one who has plenty of free time to enjoy college life.

The trick to getting the most out of a scheduled system is to understand how you, the student, operate. When you get an assignment due in a week, do you divide it up so you work a little bit each day, or do wait until the night before and knock it out in one sitting? Are you easily distracted by people or do you prefer working in the company of others? These are questions you need to answer before the work starts to add up and you don't know where to begin. Try studying in different places-the library, the dorm, the dining hall, or the quad-and see what works best for you. Once you have it all figured out, use your planner to divide up times when you can seek out your preferred working environment and crack the whip.

This system may either sound too complicated or overly simplistic, but it can help you get your work out of the way so you can have time for yourself. Just remember to be responsible and organize your activities. Don't sit at your computer stalking people on Facebook when you could be getting something done. There's no way around it: college will be stressful. But knowing how to budget your time can make all the work far less overwhelming. After all, these are supposed to be the best four years of your life, and spending your nights cramming for exams is no way to live.