The semester has just started, and like every semester before, I’m trying to stay wary of what’s to come—the semester tends to start out slow, and it can easily lull a student into a false sense of security. You’re coasting along, and the next thing you know, it’s week five and you have deadlines and exams in every class, all at once. On top of that, you have other considerations: it’s going to be Engineers Week before we know it, and the Career Fair is just around the corner!
I’m not sure what my plans are for Engineers Week yet, and I’m lucky enough to already have an internship lined up, but it doesn’t hurt to drop by the Career Fair to work on approaching people to network and build those professional skills. Whenever I have to approach someone in that kind of setting, I try to remember my favorite character from the Princess Bride:
It’s a meme, but that doesn’t make it any less relevant to understanding how to approach potential employers. Or even just connecting to people through LinkedIn! Just remember to be courteous and professional.
But back to where I started: I’m wary of what the semester has in store for me. I know that time management in an academic setting has always been a weakness for me. I’m a returning student, and while I have been back in school long enough to be aware of the expectations and lifestyle that comes with being a student, I still struggle to strike the right balance between school and work and home. I’m hardly the only one with this issue, but there’s a huge difference between simply working and leaving your work at the job when you go home, and being a student, where homework is where most of your work needs to go—and that’s on top of the hours already put in inside the classroom. This year has been particularly challenging for me, because it’s the first year I haven’t worked full time hours during the school year—which may sound like a load off, but I’ve found that it comes with its own set of challenges.
What kind of challenges? As it turns out, I have a bad habit of overestimating how much I’m capable of doing, and as a result, end up overloading myself. It’s less of a problem when my only commitment is to a job, but each class is like a job in itself, and each semester it takes me time to find a new balance. Without having to dedicate as much time to going to work, my first response was, “I can take more classes!” It sounds good in theory, but again, I overestimated, and in my attempt to take on more classes, I ended up shooting myself in the foot.
My goal for this semester (and for all future semesters), therefore, is to work on time management to allow me to strike a balance without overloading myself. It is doubly a personal and a professional goal–if I find that balance personally, I will improve both professionally and academically.
In order to achieve this goal, I want to start by becoming more aware of my current load: what obligations and tasks do I currently have? How much time/energy does each one require? What needs to be prioritized? Does any particular obligation or task give me more trouble than another? Answering these questions will give me a time frame to take care of each obligation or task, and by prioritizing, I can begin tailoring a schedule for my current tasks, based on time, priority, and other considerations.
For example, these blog posts are fairly straightforward and easy, and although they take some time to reflect on and write them, I can do them on my phone while I’m on the bus or the train–one less thing I have to worry about when I sit down to work on homework. Meanwhile, the problem set portion of the homework takes much longer, and requires more concentration–so I should plan to spread out the work over the course of an hour-to-two hour blocks through the week. Etc etc for other tasks, until I have a nice round schedule.
And then, the key thing for me: will taking on another obligation/task be feasible? My instinct at the start of the semester was to say yes, but after a couple weeks of class and reflecting over my time constraints, I have realized the answer is, probably not; at least, not without having adverse effects on the things I already have on my plate.
So, here goes! I’ll work on improving managing my time, and share my results as the semester goes on.
A Windy Approach 
I agree with you that even though you are not working full time anymore, it does bring a whole new set of challenges. You think you have more free time but you end up over studying because of that! That happened to me last semester because I also quite my job to focus more on school but ended up studying from morning to night where as before I would only study before the test and be ok with that. I think its good to find a good time balance for everything and always think if what I am studying right now actually would be beneficial or a waste of time.
A good advise would be to save time by staying away from social media and taking the train for commuting instead of driving (if you live off of campus). Commuting by train is great because you can do your homework on the train and if your driving that is a lot of time wasting. I also do not take more than 4 full classes and 2 labs max in one semester because I will get better grades that way and actually learn a lot. This is better because good grades will give you better scholarship opportunities.
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You’re absolutely right–you don’t always realize how much time you waste on social media and how little value it actually gives you. I haven’t been frequenting Facebook for well over a year already, but I’ve recently started changing my other social media habits, shifting from scrolling through twitter to scrolling through LinkedIn instead. I suppose I could take time to re-curate my twitter feed to reflect my education and career goals, but for now I prefer to focus on LinkedIn, where I can find articles relevant to my career interests and professional development.
I will say that unfortunately doing work during my commute isn’t always feasible. I often take the subway during peak hours, which means it’s crowded and I’m often left standing and getting jostled through my commute, which isn’t very conducive for studying/doing homework. Still, that’s usually when I let myself scroll through LinkedIn, rather than during times when I should be dedicating my time to being productive. It’s a give-and-take, either way, but budgeting time like this has been helpful!
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I definitely have some of the same issues as you, and I believe it’s something a lot of people struggle with too! Time management is something big that I am trying to improve on as well. I do not have a job during the semester, but I am on the board of two of Temple’s engineering organizations. This is something I was excited to do, but I find myself ending up with more work than I can handle. I enjoy doing this work, but sometimes when there is too much on your plate you can’t put in as much quality work as you want to. Just know that you are not alone!
Also, I love that meme. I will be attending the career fair to meet some people that will hopefully give me a better chance of getting an internship this summer. It’s really great that you already have one lined up. This hopefully is one less stressor to your life. I enjoyed reading your blog post, it’s always good to know someone is in the same boat as you 🙂
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I didn’t mention it in my post, but I’m also on the board for one of Temple’s engineering organizations, so I can definitely relate to being excited to do something only to realize I’ve taken on perhaps a little too much. Still, it’s a commitment I signed up for and it wouldn’t be right to step down without someone else to take my place–thus the emphasis on trying to strike a balance with everything. I will say it’s been great to be involved with student orgs, because they give you a degree of support that you may not otherwise have!
Good luck at the career fair! It’s definitely a relief to know I already have an internship lined up. Perhaps one of my future posts I may focus more on professional development, internships, and resume-building!
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Hi Melony!
This post and your blog, in general, is super refreshing to read! You write extremely eloquently without seeming too “wordy” and it makes for such a nice read! In terms of your issue with time management, ME TOO! My first year of college (3 years ago), I took a year off from working because I wanted to allow myself to be a regular college student and live on campus and do the normal college things (whatever those are, I still never got the hang of it lol). I thought it would be a great thing for me to take off work and just fully focus on my academics; however, it COMPLETELY backfired and my freshmen year ended up being my worst year academically! I had been used to working year-round all throughout high school and I thought that with the new challenge of college academics, it would be good for me to have that extra time not working but that was not the case. I ended up really mismanaging my time because I kept thinking “Oh, I have time to do it, I’ll just do it later” and kept pushing it back further and further until I was unable to catch up. Naturally, I went right back to working my sophomore year and my academics approved and they have continued approving each year. I truly agree with you; working does help you manage your time better and it is much more of a blessing than it is an impedance.
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Hey Melony, I know what you mean by overloading. Last semester I thought my schedule was pretty packed, and it sort of was. I ended up doing well last semester, so I figured I could handle all the classes that I had signed up for this semester. There are some key differences from last semester to this semester that have made this one more difficult, and without thinking about it too much ended up overloading. I don’t mind being busy for the most part, but there are moments when its just too overwhelming. I think I will try to consider the classes that I am actually taking in the future rather than just the amount of classes that Id be taking.
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