Saturday, August 9, 2008

College Students’ Time for Study and New Friends: Balance Them Out Nicely

College students really have a time of their lives during their university or college years. It is a time when there is a whirlwind of activity, piles of obligations and responsibilities and an advent of fresh faces and personalities to meet.
Do not think that once you become a college student you are deprived of making new friends in favor of study and work. If your goal in life is to successfully finish your college degree and become a professional in the career you chose, then it is doubly important to gain new acquaintances. These new associations will be a great help in achieving your goal.
First, new college friends are the ones who would primarily understand the pressure you are going through. They can be a great help when it comes to sharing lecture notes and project perspectives. They can also introduce you to new activities, which will serve as stress busters.
While your old friends are worth treasuring and still on hand for traditional activities you have shared over the years, new friends in college will pave new avenues for much improved college social life.
However, this does not mean that you will have to spend the whole lot of your time hanging out on social functions with them. Between your goal of making good as a college student and meeting new friends, you need a good time management plan in order to keep track of your foremost responsibilities.
We all know that new friends mean new social commitments, another addition to your college class schedules, important dates and other social functions with old friends. Sometimes, if you fail in efficiently setting up a time management plan, you might find yourself drifting off from one social activity to the next. It will get that way until it time gets too crowded to permit more time for browsing lecture notes and reading materials, accomplishing your projects and reviewing for exams.
Indeed, the advent of new friends for college students may mean incessant interruptions and sets awry your carefully planned schedule.
Here are several time management tips to prevent you from heading off to the destructive path of carelessness and jovial abandon.
1. Use a time chart as a tool in finding the best time for different types of activities. Since as a college student, you have a unique time management challenge in certain portions of your schedule, you also need to have a more disciplined time management tracking. One feature of the uniqueness of your schedule is the fixed classes and ample free time in between each. Rest is also much wide open, allowing you to commit to other social endeavors with friends.
As a college student, you can avoid getting swamped up with not-so-important commitments by having a time chart to help you add some additional structure to your schedule. You can base this time chart according to the different time and different types of activities.
The time chart will help you discover your peak times for mental concentration and studying. You will have to schedule study hours for your most difficult classes during these peak times.
Once you have written this off in your chart, you will know that you cannot be available for any other activity. You can decline politely from invitations by new college friends, then.
Maintaining a time chart can also help you balance your schedules. Avoid focusing much of your time just studying and not getting out of your way to make new friends. As much as possible a proper balance of study and leisure is needed to keep your mind and body alert and receptive to learning.
2. Do not indulge yourself in a common time management problem called, over-choice. College students can choose among many different activities.
Understandably, it is natural to become more inclined in a certain activity though it does not have significance whatsoever on gaining your goal in life. Even if it would mean meeting new friends, things that will cause you to lose priority are not good.
3. Remember that every time you take on something, like going out with your new friends to an excessive degree, you are automatically rejecting everything else you could have done with that time.
That’s why, aside from over-choice, guard against over-commitment and the overwhelming attempt to do too much.
Your college life as a student can effectively function if there is a significant amount of interaction with new friends. Nevertheless, do not overdo yourself. Remember the important time management tips and balance your commitments according to what is necessary to achieve your ultimate goal in life.

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