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Wellness & Self-Care Resource Guide for Students

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Introduction

Time management is a critical tool for success and self-care in college. When you manage your time effectively, you gain a sense of control, and you're better able to manage your stress levels. 

Harvard Business Review identifies three critical skills at the core of effective time management:

  • Awareness: thinking realistically about your time by understanding it is a limited resource.
  • Arrangement: designing and organizing your goals, plans, schedules, and tasks to effectively use time.
  • Adaptation: monitoring your use of time while performing activities, including adjusting to interruptions or changing priorities.

Time management looks different for everyone, but here are some common hacks to help you organize your time more effectively: 

1) Plan Ahead: Review your syllabi and course schedule at the beginning of the semester, and record due dates for tasks and appointments in a planner or calendar app. Label or color-code entries (e.g., work, school, life, etc.). On days when you are very busy, remember to schedule breaks and meals!

2) Don't multi-task: Scientifically, humans can't actually multi-task as well as they think they can. Do one thing at a time to avoid dividing your attention and decreasing your productivity. It can help to create to-do lists on a sheet of paper or on an app like Todoist. 

3) Get a good night's sleep: See the section on sleep! 

4) Reward yourself: It's important to reward yourself after completing your to-do list to avoid burnout, and achieve a good work-life balance. Whether it's visiting a friend, watching your favorite TV show, or enjoying a cup of hot chocolate, make sure you're celebrating a job well-done!

Organization Tools

Having a desktop or browser organizational tool can be helpful to keep track of things and keep you on time! 

  • Asana
    • Project management program.
  • Evernote
    • Notes, lists, and a great way to get yourself organized. 
  • InstaPaper 
    • Save notes, articles, etc. and access them anywhere and anytime. Great for organizing research!
  • myOWU 
    • myOWU is the link to all authenticated OWU services you might need as a student, such as Self-Service and Blackboard. 
  • Academic Skills Center Handouts 
    • Access folders with information on time management, reading strategies, and test taking. You must be logged in to your OWU email account to access these items. 

Planner Apps