Do you ever feel like 24 hours in a day are simply not enough? There’s just so much to do, and so little time. Whether you live at home or by yourself, there’s never enough time to get everything accomplished. And if you’re anything like me, you end up skipping class to catch up on class.

Sometimes, I’m just so caught up in making sure I submit my assignments on time, that I forget to take care of myself. I eat after I get all my work done, which is really late at night — and at that point, I’m just so tired I go to bed or I stress eat too much.

And don’t even get me started on midterm season: it’s like I don’t even exist during midterms. I’m always in my room studying or completing assignments.

If only there was a way to get good grades and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

My study habits aren’t perfect, but they’re getting better, and I am able to spare a couple of minutes for myself throughout the day, now that I’ve learnt to time manage a bit more. Some of my top tried and tested strategies include the following:

Write EVERYTHING down (Organize):

I’ve started to write down everything on my calendar — and when I say everything, I mean everything. I write down what weekends I’m going home, and how realistic getting work done at home is going to be. I even write down when I’ll be able to go visit my friends. That way, I have every day of the month accounted for, and I know where to spend how much time.

I know it sounds crazy, and straight out of a movie, but I plan ahead and schedule. It makes my life a lot less hectic, and then I know I can say “no” when there’s too much on my plate.

Keep up with class (Prioritize):

Allocating time to work on each class every day is an essential part of not falling behind — even working on a little bit at a time. That’s right – I work on something from each of my classes, daily. That way, I’m not doing any of my assignments last minute — or at least, not all of it.

That way, for example, let’s say I’m super busy one day and don’t have time to study for all my classes, I will still allocate 15 minutes per class. 15 minutes is better than nothing. Sometimes I don’t get much done in 15 minutes, but at least I’ve started to think about it and eventually it will lead me somewhere.

Study with a FRIEND (Optimize):

Have a study buddy: studying can get boring real fast, and let’s be honest — I’d rather watch cat videos on YouTube than study Machiavelli and his rationality theory. But this is when a study buddy comes in handy. I meet up with my friend or facetime time, and we both keep each other focused.

There are times when we get distracted and start talking to each other, and that is considered as our break. If we see the other person smiling at their laptop screen instead of typing, we know they’re not doing school work, and so we hold each other accountable.

Obviously everyone is different, but these are just some of the strategies that work for me and have helped me maintain my sanity during midterm season. Hopefully, with finals season quickly approaching — too quickly for me, if you ask — you might find some value in these strategies too.