Use Your Time More Effectively

Learning to manage your time well now will pay off richly in the future, when you'll be juggling even more demands—work, family, community, and more. Here are some basic skills for using time wisely. For more detail, visit Take Charge of Your Time in our Teaching Yourself to Learn section.

Use a planner (electronic or paper) to sketch out how much time you need to spend on each academic subject each week. Be sure to have enough time before classes to finish assignments due in class, and time after class to review your notes.

Plan to be ready for hour exams three days before the test. That gives you last-minute flexibility if you get sick or don't understand something.

MIT is not all about study. Add breaks and time for recreation, meals, and socializing to your planner. Scheduling time for these gives you something to look forward to as you concentrate on studies. It will also make sure you balance your academic life with exercise, good nutrition, and just plain relaxing with friends.

Use alarms on your phone and computer to get you up in the morning, remind you of appointments, and signal time for a study break. This avoids the time-waster of interrupting your study to look at the time.

Use to-do lists daily and perhaps weekly. Reward yourself when you check off the last item on a list.

Before you go to bed each night, check the weather, then put out your clothes and supplies for the next day. That way you won't stumble around in a morning fog.

Do your best to stick to your schedule—routines save time because you don't have to stop and think—but also be flexible enough to adapt to changing circumstances. If you mess up, don't beat yourself up. Just figure out what made you lose focus, make time to get back on track, and move on a wiser person.