Managing your time and priorities is extremely important in this internship and your future career. Many interns find it to be a challenge as classes become more difficult and they juggle internship responsibilities. Be proactive about learning to manage your time, keep track of responsibilities, and use a calendar.

Time is limited

You probably realized early on in your college journey that time is a limited resource. You might not have thought about this, but there are 168 hours in one week. That’s 168 hours to eat, sleep, self-care, go to class, go to work, talk to your family, and keep up a social life. Over time, our ambassadors have developed their own unique ways for managing their time and priorities. Some of us use planners — others might use electronic tools like Outlook Calendar. It isn’t always perfect, but it is essential to have some sort of system for organizing your life to make the most of those 168 hours.

A new semester ahead

Do you find yourself struggling to juggle your priorities? Did time seem to slip from your fingers? Luckily, you get a chance to refine your time/priority management skills for this upcoming semester. You always have the opportunity to take what you’ve learned and apply it to the future.

Keep it up

There are a TON of cool ways to manage your time and priorities. The “Try it out” section has a list of possible apps and other resources you are welcome to try out next semester. It might even be a good idea to test run them over summer break! If you feel your current time management system is working out, then think of ways you can keep it going or if there are ways to improve it.

Resources

The articles and videos below may help give some ideas. These resources are optional.

Read

• Southern New Hampshire University explains what time management is, it’s benefits, and tips
• 8 tips for time management for college students from Purdue Global
• Mike Kulakov from Everhour shares seven priority management techniques

Watch/Listen

• How to manage your time more effectively (according to machines) from TED-Ed
• How to motivate yourself to change your behavior from TEDx Talks presented by Tali Sharot
• It’s About Time | Time Management & Productivity for Work Life & Balance with Anna Dearmon Kornick and Brittany Dixon Episode 148, “Try this Simple System for Beating Burnout: The 3 P’s of Productivity featuring Brittany Dixon”

Try It out

• The Bepko Learning Center has these resources for managing commitments:
  • Creating a semester schedule
  • Creating a weekly schedule
  • Creating a daily to-do list
  • Creating priorities
• Google Calendar
• Microsoft To-Do
• Evernote – App for making plans, keeping a journal, and creating to-do lists
• Forest – App to help you focus on your work (grow a virtual tree and get real trees planted by spending virtual coins (optional))
• Habitica – App to gamify your life