It’s the week of your first competition; you feel stressed about performing well, you have a ten-page paper to write, and a chemistry exam in two days. Sound familiar? As student-athletes, we have all been there at some point, but don’t worry because we’ve got you covered with three time management tips that actually work!

Break tasks into smaller pieces

Oftentimes when we make to-do lists they can be intimidating. Sometimes this is because many of the items on our lists are so burdensome and require extensive work before we can cross them off our lists. As a result, we feel overwhelmed and that we are making little progress. One approach to address this is to break tasks into smaller pieces. For example, writing a ten-page paper can be broken down to the following:

• Pick a topic
• Find research sources
• Write an outline
• Draft of introduction
• Draft of section one
• Draft of section two
• Draft of section three
• Draft of conclusion
• Revise drafts

Organizing your to-do lists in this way can help you be more productive by giving you clear actionable goals.

Consider the conditions that make you most productive

Sometimes our lack of productivity can be a result of us working in ways that do not work for us. Everyone is unique and if you reflect on your patterns, you will be able to identify what conditions make you most productive.

For example, someone may find that they have trouble doing math homework at the end of the day, but get their best ideas when writing papers in the evening. This type of self-knowledge would allow that person to know that they should prioritize doing math homework in the afternoon and writing papers at the end of the day.

Schedule your time

The last time management tip is using a calendar to plan ahead for how you will use your time. This practice is simple, but highly effective at helping to foster productivity. Using tools such as Google Calendar can help with visualizing and scheduling when you will complete specific tasks. Setting up phone notifications too, can also help to remind you of any upcoming events.

While using calendars to schedule your time, it is important to think realistically about how long each task will take. Doing this, along with implementing the previous two tips, will help you set reasonable productivity goals for yourself.