Estimate the amount of time that you think you spend on the various activities listed and enter these in the “expected” row of the summary sheet. Feel free to add any additional categories that might be helpful. Then log your time for one week on an hour by hour basis. When the week is over summarize your time by category for each day, add up the values for all seven days
Our aim shouldn’t be to completely avoid stress, which at any rate would be impossible, but to learn how to recognize our typical response to stress and then try to adjust our lives in accordance with it.
Set clear goals for each day (e.g., start CHEM problem set, do POL reading, go to friend’s recital) and stick to them. Then when you are done, you are free to do whatever you like.
Here’s one practical application. If the volume of work on your to-do list overwhelms you, you might benefit from making a “one -item list”: re-write the top item from your list at the top of a blank page and work the task to completion, then repeat.
Make two activity lists: “Things I Like To Do” and “Things I Have To Do”. Mix up activities from both lists and work on each activity for a short period of time. Alternating between fun and work helps to maintain motivation and interest. All work and no fun is another schedule buster. You don’t have to be working ALL the time, but you do have to complete what needs to be done.
