A major contributor to stress is the pressure associated with time constraints. By effectively using time, you can eliminate a great deal of stress. For the college student, effective use of time is crucial, especially when working and attending school at the same time. Procrastination can add to stress and undermine academic work, personal relationships, and work efforts. Good time management can contribute to feelings of personal satisfaction through appropriate prioritizing, scheduling, and completing personal responsibilities.

Certain behaviors or habits can unnecessarily rob you of time that can be used more effectively. These include the following:

1. Workaholism. Workaholism is spending excessive amounts of time working, even though the activity may not be productive. Generally, people who engage in workaholic behavior like to work long hours and do not use time-saving techniques. They also may become over involved in unimportant tasks that eat at their time, requiring them to use extra time to accomplish important tasks.
2. Time juggling. Time jugglers constantly over schedule themselves, often making promises to be in more than one place at a time. Because it is frequently impossible to do several things at once or be two places at the same time, this behavior often results in important activities being neglected.
3. Procrastination. Procrastinators consistently put off until later things that could just as easily be done now. Some procrastinators choose the simplest of two tasks to do now so that really important ones are avoided until the last possible minute, when the pressure is on.
4. Perfectionism. Perfectionists go beyond trying to do one’s best to the point where only perfect will do. Because the concept of “perfect” may vary from one person to the next, this behavior rarely results in a sense of accomplishment and the inability to achieve impossible goals contributes to feelings of dissatisfaction and failure.
5. “Yesism.” Yesism is the inability to tell anyone “no.” Often, extremely nice people suffer from this condition because they don’t like to disappoint others or fear being rejected, even at their own expense.

Although difficult to overcome, many of the aforementioned characteristics can be moderated if you are determined to do so. More effective suggestions for appropriate use of your time are as follows:

Organize and write down realistic goals and priorities. Current activities should be assessed as to whether they are essential, important, or trivial. Ask yourself the question, “When does the task have to be completed?” Write down the priorities for the next day before going to sleep each night and rank them in order. This provides a night to “sleep on them.” They can then be approached systematically, according to need, the next day.

Develop a time framework. To help alleviate stress, establish the amount of time to be spent on each activity. Some tasks cannot be completed in a day’s time. If this is the case, estimate the days or weeks required to complete the task. This is especially important in accomplishing long-term commitments. Allotting blocks of time each day of each week helps to alleviate the extreme pressure of completing a difficult task in a short time. For example, if a term paper is due at the end of a semester, you can spend a certain number of hours each week working on the paper. You can establish goals for the completion of the paper with a reward for yourself each time a goal is achieved. Another example is to study each course every day by allotting a specific time to read and review the subject material covered in class.

Know where and when you can best complete a task. Know the circumstances under which you function best. Is it easier for you to concentrate if you work in the library or the dorm room? Where will you have the least interruptions? Do you concentrate best in the morning, afternoon, or evening?

Establish priorities. To find time for everything that must be done, you have to know your priorities. Tasks can be divided into those that must be done immediately, those that can wait a brief time, and those that are not essential to accomplish. Once priorities are established, start with the highest priority item and work through the list.

Ask for help if responsibilities become over whelming. Say “no” when there are too many tasks to handle. Do not feel guilty about saying “no,” this only adds more stress. For example, if sorority or fraternity demands are too great, either ask others to share the workload or refuse the responsibility.

Take a break. Every day should provide for fun, leisure, time alone, and relaxation. Make the most of every day. Schedule in time every day for yourself.

Use it to record your daily activities for several days to a week. Then review it and see if you are spending your time as effectively as you thought or if you have overschedvuled what you can do in a 24-hour period. This can provide you with a basis for improved time management plans.