Tufts Blogs

With some stroke of luck, my schedule this semester is one of the best thus far. None of those difficult 8:30 am classes (I’m looking at you 8:30 Chem) and no late-night labs. My schedule this year is fun and allows me to go to cool events!

I’m a gal that loves a clean but busy calendar, so I live off of my Google Calendar to keep me sane. I divide my schedule into five categories. Gray is for classes, exams in purple, office hours in orange, events in burgundy, and reminders in blue. This semester I am taking Social Psych, Intro to Child Studies & Human Development, Japanese 3, Children & Mass Media, and a CTV Research class. Mondays and Fridays are the busiest for me. Monday is when I get the bulk of my work done, which means knocking out my heavy load of readings for the week. I would sit down and just read for about 3 hours to reserve the rest of my week studying and other work obligations. My Fridays are spent sitting 5 hours in a classroom. I purposely scheduled it this way because Fridays, I would go to my classes and come back and relax! No need to do any substantial work on Fridays!

 I have a job on campus, as I work with the Admissions Diversity Council. I’m also involved with several clubs on campus, including the Tufts United for Immigrant Justice (UIJ) E-board and CTV Children’s Media Research Project, which means that the bulk of my evenings are spent in meetings or coding for my research class. To keep me organized and engaged, here are some tips with my two semesters of the college experience! 

Schedule in your exams/quizzes (in purple for reference)! I do this so that when I have a glance through my next couple of weeks, I know when to start preparing for exams. 
Make sure to schedule office hours into your calendar (in orange for reference)! Office hours are a great time to get to know your professors and ask for help. I purposely schedule in-office hours so that whenever I have free time, the scheduled office hours on my calendar encourages me to go! 
Find your peak productivity hours. I know that I work best around noon to mid-afternoon, and so I schedule my classes before or after those times to do work when I am most productive.

Last year as a freshman, I would have my calendar packed. I would dedicate time to studying and schedule for lunch and dinner. The absurd amounts of events made me claustrophobic with my schedule. This year instead of scheduling in blocked times of work, whenever I see an empty box in my schedule, I will know that it’s time to get my work done.

Now, as I’m entering my second year at Tufts, I’ve learned to expect the unpredictable. College is unpredictable at times, and knowing how to adapt and be flexible with your schedule is truly one of the most crucial things. And just because your schedule is disrupted doesn’t mean the end of the world! So for all of the folks out there that cling to their calendar as a lifeline, know that your calendar is meant to boost your productivity, not hinder it!