I sit down at my desk, ready to finally start that assignment that’s been plaguing my to-do list for days. Though, before starting, I flip through my planner and scan over the other scribbled down tasks and assignments I have to do. Questions swirl in my brain about how I’m going to juggle them all, plus the volunteer opportunities that I signed up for (but maybe don’t want to do). 

Suddenly, my fancy planner that I bought at the beginning of the year, the planner that would fix my entire life, looks like a big, jumbled mess. I feel my heart hammering in my chest, about to burst, and suddenly I want to type “chest pain symptoms” in the search bar. 

Maybe you relate. 

Maybe I’m the only one who has ever felt like this. 

But my guess is that probably not because someone is still reading this. 

Time management is not only an appealing skill to list under the Skills section on your resume. Time management isn’t just managing your time to get things done. It’s an essential skill that will serve you well until the end of your days. It allows you to go about your life and keep the anxiety, worry, and stress at bay. It allows you to focus on joy. 

While I’m not a student anymore, I remember the days juggling a heavy class load with a part-time job and extracurriculars. Throw church or volunteer commitments on top of that, and the weight may cause the ground to crumble beneath you. 

But the ground doesn’t have to crumble. The planner doesn’t have to look messy or overwhelming or cause you to throw it out the window. Time management is a skill to continue brushing up on — take it from me, who’s recovered from the planner overwhelm and learned how to manage her time and keep stress at bay. So… how did I do it? 

Grace. Prayer. Hope. 

Begging on my knees for a little extra time and breathing room. 

But mainly grace. 

And some brushed-up time management skills.     

How to Manage Your Time Well

Create a master schedule.

Look at your planner. That’s great! You nailed the first step. Is it messy? Are the tasks out of place and not organized by time or day? Do you have random slips of paper sticking out of it? Planners can get messy, that’s totally understandable. Start by organizing your tasks and commitments by category: school, work, church, volunteer commitments, etc. Use sticky notes to divide your tasks within these categories. Combine tasks with reminders to get things done — and sort them as events. Marking reminders as events sets a time in the calendar to remind you to get that task done. Writing times down gets the jumbled mess from your brain to paper. 

Use time blocking.

Once you have your categories, block out specific times on your calendar for all your commitments. Allocate specific blocks for assigned classes, work and volunteer shifts, and service events, but also study times and any free time for hobbies. When time blocking, know your energy levels — whether you are more productive and efficient in the morning, evening, or afternoon.

Leverage any small pockets of time.

Use any free time to review your notes, respond to emails, or complete that discussion board assignment. Don’t confuse this extra time as time for hobbies, but instead, this extra time to study can be found on breaks like commutes or in between classes during your school day. Save your fun free time, the downtime often spent in the evenings and weekends, for your hobbies — the things that bring you the most joy! 

Plan ahead for peak periods.

Professors hand out the syllabus at the beginning of the semester. Immediately upon receiving it, write all the dates for midterms, finals, and major projects into your calendar. For exams, look at the days and weeks prior. Block time during those days and weeks leading up to the exams. 

Talk about it.

The key to unlocking the supreme level of time management skills is communication. If your calendar is looking particularly full one week, talk to your professors, classmates, or peers about deadlines and commitment levels. Be honest about what you can commit to! Don’t overschedule yourself. It’s better to be upfront about your commitments ahead of time, instead of cancelling at the last minute, or worse, falling short of your responsibilities. 

Find accountability.

Share your calendar, whether digital or paper, with a friend. When busyness is creeping in, you can encourage each other to step away and draw near to God. 

You’re Not Alone

Managing your time well keeps you from feeling like that lonely, stressed out person. It keeps the stress at bay and invites joy into your life. Instead of pulling an all-nighter to study for the big test, you can block a healthy amount of time each day to review your notes. Preparing and spreading out your time across a long enough period of time serves future you — future you taking that exam. 

If you struggle with time management, you’re not alone. Busy students find their schedules filled to the brim with new, more difficult classes, a laundry list of extracurriculars, and endless volunteer opportunities. This packed schedule can seem overwhelming. But with these new responsibilities comes the opportunity to level up in new soft skills like time management. Instead of saying “I’m so busy” all the time, scatter your time to keep the stress at bay. 

Life is not meant to be fast forwarded. Run your race well, but enjoy the race, too.

This article was originally titled “Booked & Balanced” in the April 2026 issue of Peer.