Time management: The most important lesson I learned in college

When I started my website I was more then excited. I was looking forward to the challenge, and the dreams of instant success (which rarely exists). However, I quickly learned that there are many different aspects of running a business. There are client and customer relations, marketing, financial issues, and a constant monkey on your back. So about a month into the company I had to take a step back and look at everything I had going on. I was the vice president of my fraternity, a full time business student, and now the owner of a business. This led to a lot of worrying, and with that came great anxiety. It was not until I decided to take the advice that my mother and father had been giving me for as long as I can remember. They always told me that life was a balancing act, and if you approach your day with a schedule, balancing out time for everything, then the tasks at hand will come easier, and you will find more success. I began to start putting events into a calendar. I would schedule the time that I would spend working on my website, time to study, social time, and most importantly the time that I would take alone.

After a few weeks of forcing myself to write out what I wanted to do, I began to get the hang of it. I started to see changes in my lifestyle. I noticed everything from more success with my website to having a clean room and working environment (which makes a big difference in productivity). I was not surprised by this; I realized how obvious of a solution this was to managing your time.

Some people look at scheduling as just another thing to do. This is not the case, if anything it puts less on your plate because procrastination starts to filter away from your everyday life. I realized that when I was sitting there watching ESPN every morning, I could be reading my email, and planning my day out. Later on that day, when I just wanted to sit down and relax, I would look at my schedule, and see that it was time to be working out. I would hold myself accountable, and if I worked out, then I wouldn’t feel guilty at 7 pm, when it was time for me to take an hour to relax.

I have maintained a life style built around a schedule, and it only gets easier. My next challenge is learning to budget, but there is a new girl in my life that is forcing me to learn that skill.