Post Grad Time Mangement Challenged: How To Maintain a Work-life Balance

When I made the transition from classroom to cubeland, the biggest bear I faced was time management. Students usually have the luxury of having at least a few days before turning in an assignment, whereas professionals schedules are never constant, and often have tasks that were due 10 minutes ago.

Instead of becoming overwhelmed, be prepared for these moments by practicing good time management.

Use these tips as a reference:

1. Find A System That Works For You
There are countless ways to systematically organize your time and responsibilities. Choosing the system that works best with your personality will  make adding agenda items easy to maintain, ensuring follow-through of tasks. Checklists and calendars are two common examples, but even the components within these systems are complex (e.g. digital vs. notebook, color coding vs. separate pages). For me, Outlook’s built-in checklist feature makes it easy to link specific emails to tasks, which I can assign a priority and deadline. For my more personal tasks I keep a little notebook where I list my "to do" for the day. As I finish a task I cross it off. Any task I don't complete I carry on to the "to do" list for the next day. I write the list the night before, right before going to bed. Keeping it visual allows me to set short term goals and long term goals.

2. Get It Right The First Time
So much of your day can be wasted if your work requires heavy revisions. Successfully completing tasks the first time will not only allow you to keep your other deadlines, it also helps your colleagues keep theirs. Ask your supervisor questions before you begin an assignment to clarify what the end product should look like. If you feel a task is taking longer than necessary to complete, ask another staffer if they know a shortcut. Discovering efficient methods rewards you with more time in your day to accomplish other tasks. Don't do work just to get it done, do it in terms of efficiency. 

3. Prioritize And Manage Expectations
Working on multiple accounts or having multiple supervisors is a recipe for miscommunication. Managers rarely discuss the things on your plate, so it’s your job to raise flags when you have competing deadlines. Talking through assignments will sometimes uncover some flexibility in deadlines; maybe your supervisor has a long meeting at the time you were originally tasked to turn something in for review. I don’t recommend you challenge every assignment, but do speak up when it is necessary.