Time Management

Tick Tock. Tick. Tock. Do you hear that? Of course you don’t. All of your clocks are digital by now. But it’s the sound of your life passing you by. Under the pile of papers due, your stress from your job and extracurriculars, you can sense it.

I’ll admit, that’s me. This post is far too late for me to have any good excuse. Rather, I have several, but they all revolve around: busy, busy, busy.  Since starting at Marymount in August, I’ve been juggling:

·    Writing and editing my submission to the Marymount Manhattan Review

·    My radio show and other related responsibilities (I worked the Senior Soiree with another Griffin Radio DJ)

·    Preparing for my stage management interview. Cross your finger for me!

·    My work-study job in the Office of College Relations and Advancement. I get to write articles for the website and also stuff paper into envelopes. Guess which one I enjoy more.

·    Writing for MMC’s paper, The Monitor. I have a regular humor column called “Random Thoughts.”

·    Family obligations. It’s nice to live closer to family, but then they want you to visit and actually do things with them. Selfish!

·    Domestic stuff. Think showers, laundry, dishes. All of that icky stuff.

·    Oh yeah, and classes.

A big part of why I am so busy has to do with how often I get distracted by trivial things. So today, kiddos, I’m going to give you a short lesson on how to focus in college. 

1)   Ban Facebook. When you have a paper due, Facebook is the bane of your existence. It doesn’t exist. Turn off the notifications that go to your phone and e-mail. Or, better yet…

2)   Turn your phone on silent, or even just off. If you’re the type who has friends texting you every five minutes, it would be especially wise to do this. Every time your phone goes off it takes you out of whatever it is you’re doing (reading, writing a paper, creating a playlist for your radio show) and it’ll take longer to get done.

3)   Don’t multi-task. Especially if you’re multi-tasking a school assignment with a fun thing to do. Multi-tasking actually shortens the amount of time you’re able to focus on one thing. The only things you can do at once are my favorite combination: folding laundry and watching TV.

4)   Take advantage of downtime. Right now, I’m at work. I don’t really have a lot to do today, so instead of reading about the Queens of England on Wikipedia for fun (I wish to God I was kidding about this) I’m doing my blog post, because I know that when I get home I’ll be exhausted and not want to do it. 

Hey, does her necklace remind you of the one Ugly Betty wears?

Do any of my fellow bloggers or readers have some tips? Leave them in the comments and I’ll be sure to add them in.

Much love,

K.M.