When you enter college, many things are similar yet different. You still have classes and extracurricular activities, but those classes and activities don’t happen every day leaving you with larger chunks of time in between and at the end of the day. How do you spend that time? Do you treat it as free time? Or do you choose wisely on how to spend it? This can be a challenging dilemma especially if you’ve never had to manage large chunks of unscheduled time before.
But it doesn’t have to be.
One key thing that can help with this is simply shifting your mindset. Instead of looking at your unscheduled time as free time to lay around and watch TV or scroll through social media all afternoon, view it as choice time that involves delegating time on your weekly calendar to work on assignments and readings for your classes. This doesn’t mean that you can’t watch TV or scroll through social media. What it does mean is that you are thoughtfully considering the wisest way to spend your time.
Everyone needs to take a brain break after classes or working on assignments for a while, but that break time shouldn’t surpass the amount of time you need to complete your coursework. View the breaks you take as a reward for completing an assignment or a section of a larger project. This helps you achieve a good school-life balance and will help you feel less stressed across those areas.
I know shifting your mindset is easier said than done, so don’t do it alone. Reach out to some friends and hold each other accountable on how you spend your choice time. Schedule or plan what you will do during your choice time every day and put that schedule into your phone so it can notify you when you have scheduled to work on an assignment or take a break. Remember to use campus resources, which are available to you free of charge.
These options serve as reminders in your busy life and can help you enjoy your college experience more fully every day during the semester instead of constantly riding the stressful crunch time roller coaster.