Between internships, part-time jobs, a full course load, and volunteer commitments, a glance at your weekly planner can induce a major headache. Like it or not, scheduling your day is the only way to get through it successfully. How will you ever fit everything in and still have time to eat, sleep, and bathe?
The key is to prioritize. Schedule planning and learning to prioritize can be daunting tasks in and of themselves when you’re involved in many projects but have limited time available to devote to each.
During one of my busier semesters at San Diego State University, I held two part-time jobs while juggling 21 units/credits, which often meant running on two or three hours of sleep. The only thing that saw me through this period was my handy dandy day planner.
Whether you’re a college student, recent graduate, or working professional, the key to successfully juggling multiple commitments that you perceive to be of equal importance is to write it all down in order of importance and work diligently through each item on your to-do list.
Prioritize. It’s Simple a A-B-C.
After we snagged our first full-time public relations positions, a friend gave me a great piece of advice that a mentor had previously shared with her about how to prioritize a daunting list of work-related tasks: Categorize each task on your to-do list as A, B, C.
“A” tasks are those important tasks that must be completed before the end of your day. “B” tasks are the actions that you’d like to get done that day but can be put on the back-burner if necessary. Finally, any task that needs to get done but isn’t time sensitive falls in the “C” category.
This simple method became my saving grace as the responsibilities piled on. Additionally, through trial and error I learned that some of the tasks I devoted major chunks of my day to weren’t priorities at all in reality. Know when you’re making a mountain out of a molehill, and more importantly, be realistic about how much you can accomplish in a day before agreeing to taking on a new project or job.
Which of the commitments on your schedule should you move to the “A-list”? What other ways can you prioritize the items on your to-do list?
