How I Manage Time As A Student And Blogger?

Being a college student majoring in competitive creative fields like Journalism and Writing, I learnt soon that if I were to commit to blogging, I’d have have to manage time wisely. Like Pareto said “roughly 80% of the effects in life come from 20% of the causes” i.e., it became about how I could hone my skills so that I could get twice the amount of things done within same time-frame.

To make the best of your existence, you would first have to pay 100% attention to yourself and your needs. THREE THINGS: MIND, BODY & SOUL. It is simple; you take care of your mind, and your body takes care of itself. If you are in touch with both your mind’s and body’s needs, you are automatically in touch with your inner being, or your soul.

Three things I do to sharpen my mind that help me manage my time very effectively are:

1. EAT SMART

I am not saying eat healthy food; I wish someone had told me these food hacks earlier in life. In just two months I saw a huge improvement in my memory and brain capacity as I added a few foods in my life.

The first thing I do every morning is having green tea no matter how much I detest the taste – nothing beats it as a digestive system detoxifier. If you wake up light, you tend to stay light throughout the day.

Then, I mix two walnuts and three almonds in my cereal-milk breakfast. This way, I don’t have to eat them separately. A substitute would be oats and walnut-almond combination in Greek yogurt.

Starting your day with a detox and crunchy mind-sharpening nuts really fuels your system up for the day – not just physically, but also psychologically. You will find yourself wanting to eat light throughout – naturally.

Omega -3 pills are the messiah in this game. Made of fish oil, they have been known to promote brain health significantly. I bought a bottle of 50 soft gels and eat one a day after lunch. If you start having these three things regularly for a month, you will find your mind functioning a lot better and yourself feeling less tired.

2. EXERCISE YOUR BRAIN

When you get into the ebb and flow of your day-to-day life, you aren’t really pushing your brain to THINK beyond its comfort zone. My ideology is that just like your body, your brain too has a metabolism which needs kick starting early morning or it would lead toward subsequent lethargy.

To combat that, I solve one Sudoku puzzle every morning. If you don’t like Sudoku, you could solve a math problem or a riddle. But doing one every morning while drinking tea can really get your brain cells working. In the long run, it improves your problem-solving skills tremendously.

3. CHANGE YOUR HABITS

It is one thing to know about everything I just told you, and another to breathe it in till it becomes synonymous with who you are. For that door, there is only one KEY- CONSISTENCY. Without consistency, nothing you do in your life can be extraordinary enough.

“What is the most rigorous law of our being? Growth. No smallest atom of our moral, mental, or physical structure can stand still a year. It grows–it must grow smaller or larger, better or worse–it cannot stand still. In other words, we change–and must change, constantly, and keep on changing as long as we live. What, then, is the true Gospel of consistency? Change. Who is the really consistent man? The man who changes. Since change is the law of his being, he cannot be consistent if he’s stuck in a rut.”

-MARK TWAIN, “Consistency,” The Complete Essays of Mark Twain

The point I am trying to make here is that yes, there are days I just cannot do it physically or mentally. But those are the days of real test – when I am all worn and looking for just one beam of light. That is where I have to remember why I started and with belief in myself keep flying and soaring high. It is that one extra mile uphill that isn’t crowded – the one breath away from from personal success.

To do this, start building a relationship with yourself and try to motivate yourself everyday- either through prayers or just words of gratitude. Optimism is your magic potion to self fulfilment because it quickly becomes a lens through which you see all situations in your life- good or bad, and handle real life problems, accordingly.

until next time,

Arushi