Time Management and Students: Plan a Veg-Out Day Following Exams

I believe everyone struggles with time management, but no one more so than students. After all, when you're a student you have the same struggles with stretching your time as everyone else plus you have to find time for studying, attending classes (whether online or brick and mortar), reading, assignments, and research.

Many (probably most) college students, especially nontraditional students with jobs and family, have no time...zip, zero, nada...for themselves to do what they wanted to when they want to do it.

For that reason, I learned, probably during my first semester to give myself a veg-out day following exams or the completion of something big like a research project.

I didn't really have a choice because I, surprising even myself, turned out to be totally OCD concerning my classes and grades. If a professor told me I didn't have to worry about a certain section in my textbook I'd read it anyway because I was so afraid I'd miss out on something that would be the basis for something I'd be learning in the future but...Oh No!...since I'd skipped it I'd be in the dark and struggling.

Talk about brain fried, I'm not a TV watcher, but that's what I would do on my veg-out day. I reasoned that it was because I'd so overused my brain I needed to just be brainless for a while to recharge.

I would TiVo some shows and basically create my own marathon. I would plan on just being able to lie around on the couch. To accomplish that goal I'd have leftovers in the fridge or else this is one of the few times we would eat out or order pizza.

It really gave me something to look forward to while I was pulling those all-nighter's, which I (obviously) did often.

So go ahead, plan your veg-out day for the day or two following your most challenging projects whether they are mid-terms, a research paper, a project, or finals. It will help keep you focused by knowing that you have a double treat at the end (getting the project done and getting the next day or two free to do whatever you want).

Believe it or not, this will, in the long run, help your time management efforts as it will provide an ingredient sadly missing in many time management plans...motivation.

Make your veg-out day your own. Plan whatever it is that you'd like to do whether that's go to the beach, have a manicure and pedicure, or just catch up on some reading that you want to do because you want to.

Want more tips on how to get your crazy life under control? If so, then download my free ebook about Time Management and Students where you'll find ideas for time management in several crucial areas where we all struggle. Also visit me at There Must Be A Better Way