Time management and proper planning of tasks, especially school projects, is a tuff thing that several students deal with including myself. With several things to juggle like multiple classes or even things outside of school like work and personal life tasks it can get very difficult to manage everything, everyday.
There really is no "perfect" solution or magical guide on how to fix everyone's time management problems, if there was, the struggle so many people know would be almost nonexistent.
For the longest time I began just waiting until the last couple hours to get things done for a school project which lead me to be very stressed out during those couple hours because knowing the deadline was right around the corner can be a double edged sword, on one hand it gave me the push I needed to complete the project but on the other hand, if it's a complicated project that required multiple steps, skipping those required steps just means the work I put out ends up being sloppy and even if it meets the criteria of the project it probably isn't something I end up being happy with because it was rushed.
It has taken me a long time to finally come up with something that actually works, so for the past two semesters I've been trying to start projects early so they can for starters still be completed on time but also be something I'm proud to have worked on. I've been able to accomplish this by pretending the deadline is 1-2 days earlier than what it says it is, so if a project is due on the 20th, in my mind I'll say the project is due on the 18th or 19th. This greatly helped me but it was very difficult at first because it takes more than just tricking yourself about a deadline, it takes motivation which is especially hard for me to come by because if I'm not being paid to do it I end up not wanting to do it. As time went on I got better at going with my made up deadlines to get me to do things sooner, even changed my calendars on all my devices to one days ahead for a couple months.
That is just an example of what worked for me, while it might actually work for some other people it's not a perfect system and as life goes on I really hope to find a better method of making sure I stay on track with my life tasks even after school ends and I have no more project deadlines. I do believe it is also something everyone has to figure out on their own and outside help can be very helpful for motivation but in the end it's all about what works for YOU.
- Enzo
