When it comes to the term “scarcity” in economic class, the perfect example is time. Everyone faces time scarcity at some point or another, so time management seems to be an essential for students.

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“The higher capability you have, the more important for you to get your life organized,” says Ariel Watson, a junior accounting and finance major. As an RA for Almy Hall and a Dobbin’s office employee, she understands just how vital managing your time can actually be. As far as allocating her time usefully, organization is key. “Usually, I use three planners to manage my time: big calendar notebook for all courses assignments, phone calendar for week and school events and papers for making a list of ‘to do now’ and ‘to do later.’” Since she faces multiple tasks on a day-to-day basis, Watson knows all too well that forgetfulness happens. At the beginning of this year, before she bought her class calendar, she missed one assignment. In order to prevent the situation of missing assignments and living with a systematic life, she personally recommends for every student do the same thing.

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Colin Dedert, a freshman nursing major, balances his time between the volleyball team, studying and utilizing a social life. He does so by using a schedule board strictly for volleyball and a calendar notebook for everything else. “The beginning of every month, I will make a new schedule of volleyball practice. In class, once a professor assigns homework, I will write down on my schedule notebook and check them before each course so that I won’t missing assignments.” Once he knocks some priorities out of the way, he contacts his friends to hang out with them. This time with friends is beneficial to maintain stable relationship and expand the circle of friends. “This method helped me a lot, making my life more organized.,” Dedert added.

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Brian Chu, a freshman psychology major, has not tried to control his time. However, he strongly agrees with the importance of time management.  Without distributing his time to the right place, he has received some small consequences. “I forgot several assignments in last semester”, Chu confesses. “So, I definitely will manage my time when it gets busy, maybe in next semester”.

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Learning how to handle your time is an indispensable benefit for college students if they always are facing limited time. Nonetheless, effectively managing time is a skill that so many desire but so few have. The most recommended way of managing time is to simply use a planner.

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In the book A Pocket Guide to College Success which clearly and specifically illustrates how to use a planner wisely, it gives advice for academic life: “Making a plan for studying and completing assignments; Writing down what day you will begin assignments and what day you will start studying for tests can greatly improve your chances for college success”.  For daily life, it says to “schedule details of your daily life. It’s important to write down everything you need to do each day in your planner”. As for suggestions about how to make planner, it is better to choose two planners for scheduling - one for an academic life and another for daily life. Effectively establishing study schedule for all exams and tests at least three to five days ahead can help students be well-prepared and finally gain a satisfactory score. One small step towards a little bit of organization could potentially go a long way.