Flora
As nursing students, we are responsible for juggling our courses, clinicals, and exams, but to add onto that, many of us are also working or involved in extracurricular activities. All of these responsibilities can be hard to balance if our time management skills are subpar. Here are some tips you can follow to manage your time better:
Determine how you are distributing your time currently:
You would be surprised to see how much time you are dedicating to unproductive tasks if you track your activities for a day. Your first step is to figure out how much time you could be utilizing towards productive work.
2. Figure out your priorities:
Evaluate the tasks that are on your general To-Do list and rank them in order of importance and time sensitivity. Filter out the tasks that are less urgent or could be completed in the future. Now, you have a list of tasks that NEED to be done and you will make sure that they fit into your schedule.
3. Create a daily To-Do list:
This daily list will motivate you to complete every task at hand before the end of the day. Try to put a time limit on the tasks so that you can manage the amount of time you spend on each one.
4. Schedule breaks in-between tasks:
It is unrealistic to schedule back to back tasks which can make you burn out easily. It is possible to be productive and be kind to yourself even when you have a super jam-packed day. Making some time to grab a cup of coffee, playing with your pet, and going on a brunch date with your friends are forms of relaxation that can help you to destress and in turn, help you stay focused.
5. Create long term To-Do lists:
I really enjoy using Google Calendar to organize all of my course work, exams, clinicals, work, and extracurricular activities. It allows me to make to-do lists on the app itself and manages all of my responsibilities in a week or month format. It is very customizable, yet simple enough to get the hang of. If you like the old-school way of planning, consider using a planner. Framing your tasks for the next few weeks will help to mentally prepare you for upcoming work.
6. Resist multitasking:
Try to focus on the task at hand and block all other forms of distraction. This can be done by putting your phone on "Do Not Disturb" or physically removing yourself from distractions such as loud music, TikTok, loud roommates, and the most recent episode of your favorite TV show. Instead, you can listen to calm music (such as Lofi Study Beats) and burn your favorite candle for relaxation.
Time management is a crucial skill to have as a nursing student. There are a lot of responsibilities pertaining to the major, but we also have to balance our personal lives. These basic steps will help you to achieve better time management goals and hopefully make you less stressed. Best of luck!
References:
https://www.lucidchart.com/blog/time-management-at-work
Comments