Caity Healy | Lifestyle Editor

I’ve always struggled with finding ways to properly manage my time. Being a full time student, working two jobs and finding breaks to take care of myself and my mental health can be incredibly exhausting; it’s definitely not an easy thing to do.

Pairing this with the fact that I’m also someone who will never leave a job unfinished can often lead to grueling, long nights of stress crying, a lot of complaining and inevitably more procrastinating that only fuels the vicious cycle.

With the start of the new school year, I wanted to try as best as I could to avoid making this habit become a serious problem. So, instead of letting it fester as time goes by, I’m trying new techniques that have been significantly easing the workload.

To-do lists have become my new best friend. Every week I create a new one, and add to it as each day goes by. Looking at everything I need to get done in an orderly fashion helps my brain envision my plan of attack. Plus, it feels incredibly relieving to be able to cross things off and see the list shrink before your eyes.

I also make sure to prioritize. For someone like me, everything that I know must be done is of equal importance. However, I’m learning to weigh the pros and cons of each task and figure out what truly must be done first. In the end, if time doesn’t permit me to get to a specific task, I’m learning to understand that it’s okay. My mental health is far more important than any assignment.

Managing time is a learning process for me, and an incredibly beneficial one at that. The better I’ve been getting at it, the stronger I feel as a whole. The tactics that I’m teaching myself now are one’s that I will continue to utilize through the rest of my life. What better time to pick up this skill than now?’

Contact the author at chealy16@wou.edu