Time Management for Graduate Students

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Want to know my top three tips for time management for graduate students? These are the top three that I think are the most important to focus on!

Time management in grad school is important because a lot of your time is not structured for you. For example, you may have days where your sole task is to write—and it is up to you to get writing done and to meet deadlines. You will also have personal life tasks that you have to get done (i.e., cooking, cleaning, errands, etc.).

A large part of graduate school is structuring your time so that you have enough time to complete school-related tasks, personal responsibilities, and make time to do things that sustain you! I am giving you my three time management tips for graduate students that kept me on track in grad school!

1. Figure out a calendar system that works for you and use it!

I use iCal along with a planner. My iCal tells me where I need to be when, and my planner (here is my favorite: Moleskine Planner) tells me what tasks I need to be sure to complete or work on that week. Sometimes, on really busy weeks, I may time block specific tasks on my iCal so I can know when I am to work on specific tasks. I have been using this system since college and it works well for me.

As I transition to early-career faculty, I am noticing that I have fewer tasks that need to be completed in a week, but bigger writing projects that I work on over time. Stay tuned for if I tweak his system any to accommodate the new demands on my schedule!

Once you have your calendar system figured out…

2. Batch plan everything…including downtime!

In graduate school, you may find it helpful to plan everything (eating, napping, social time, downtime). If you don’t, your time could easily be taken over by other tasks. Scheduling your days this way is important because you can reduce the chance that other tasks will override aspects of your life that you find important and sustain you like eating lunch and catching up with family! I plan my week every Sunday evening.

3. Become comfortable with setting boundaries

Once you have your week planned the way that you like, you will find that you have to set boundaries to make sure you can maintain your schedule. This will be easier in some areas than others. For example, patient concerns sometimes may come up for me and that automatically comes first. However, you may be able to set boundaries around last-minute requests to complete a non-urgent task that would be hard to fit into your schedule for the week.

Figuring out what time management strategies work for you takes some trial and error! But once you find a system that works for you it will really help with feelings of overwhelm that creep up in graduate school. Let me know what time management strategies you have found that work for you in the comments below!