Hello blog! Welcome back to a week in my Wellesley life â¨This week, Iâm going to talk about how I balance everything at Wellesley. When I first got to Wellesley, I was really shocked by how quickly time flies by when youâre in college. Time management was definitely something I struggled with a lot my first semester. While time management is a non-linear journey, Iâve adopted some tools and habits that have helped me maintain balance at Wellesley. I hope things in this blog will serve as college life hacks for you đŞÂ
#1: Splitting weekends into 5 chunks âď¸
I think of my weekend in 5 chunks: Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, Sunday morning, and Sunday night. I like to take two of those chunks to do fun/relaxing things, whether itâs a night to myself watching TV, or going out to Boston to get a meal with friends. The other three chunks are for being productive. During the school year, I leave Friday and Saturday nights open for myself and my friends, which leaves Saturday morning, and all of Sunday for me to do homework. This gives me a good balance of having fun, while being productive on the weekends.Â
#2: PomodoroÂ
I had heard of this method for the longest time. If you havenât tried it out, or if you think it wonât work for you, just try it once. The pomodoro method is where you work for 25 minutes, and then take a 5 minute break. You repeat this cycle three times, and at the end you get a longer 25 minute break. This helps me get going because splitting up work into 25 minute sections makes it very approachable and digestible. Iâll force myself to step away from all devices for 5 minutes and do something like stretching or laying down and breathing so I donât doom scroll or go down a rabbit hole of online shopping. I love putting on ambient sounds from a website called âI miss my libraryâ when Iâm doing Pomodoroâs to help me focus.Â
#3: Google Calendar
When you get to Wellesley, you will realize that everyone here puts their life on their Google Calendar (otherwise known as G-cal). I customized the colors on my G-cal by creating different colors for all of my classes because I didnât like the default colors. I also love using the tasks feature on G-cal because you can check things off, and I love the dopamine that comes from checking things off.Â
#4: Time between classes
The rumors are trueâyou do have way more time in college, and that can be pretty overwhelming. Sometimes, the time you have can be these big awkward gaps between classes, but these gaps are perfect for squeezing something in, whether itâs getting coffee with a friend on campus, reading a chapter of a book for class, cleaning my room, or doing a couple of problems on a p-set. I will usually look at my G-cal the day before to see what gaps of time I have since it fluctuates weekly, and Iâll plan out what I want to do during those gaps of time, whether itâs being productive, resting, or socializing.Â
#5: Meeting with an academic success coach
At Wellesley, you have academic success coaches (ASC) that live in your residential halls. Theyâre your peers that are trained on study strategies and time management skills. I met with an ASC a lot during my first year. They helped me transition into my first year through all of the tips and tricks they gave me. I learned tip #1 (splitting your weekend into chunks) from an ASC!Â
Thatâs all from me this week! I hope you can find something in this blog that will be helpful in your college journey đ¤
Until next time!
Warmly,
SofĂa â26