Friends always ask me how I manage work and school. Frankly, I did not manage them well so far.

But the new year and new semester surely gives me a reason to learn the art of completing tasks. The first week of the year has already given me a glimpse into many opportunities that I would love to commit other than work and school. Although I was fearful at first, I know if I do not take this chance to learn, I won’t never know if i can possibly do all of them really well.

So here are my first 5 steps towards learning to manage my stuff well:

1. Identify the first priority: This is an easy one for me. It is school. The rest of the priorities will have to work around it.

2. Understand my own time span for concentration: It is a fact that pseudo work does not equal to work and neither does long hours guarantee performance. So, I would like to work at my optimum concentration time and i take that as 2 hours, with one break in between.

3. Schedule fixed times every week: I came across this idea of fixed scheduled productivity, with uninterrupted focus. I have chosen the early morning hours of 5:30am to 7:30am before I get to go for work. I think this is an excellent time because not only do i get the benefits of waking up early, I will get to do uninterrupted work in the peace and quiet of my room. Also, I do not have to worry about not getting my school work done in the evening, just in case I need to stay back late for my work.

4. Discipline myself to stick to this schedule: Performance is always exponential. The more I do it, the better I will become – or at least I believe in this. So, just start! In order to stick to this schedule, I will also have to ensure I sleep early by 10:30pm every night.

5. Form a habit: Instead of doing a new year’s resolution, I have set myself to form 6 habits for 2010. The fixed scheduled habit shall be my first one and that’s for the next 2 months.

I have no idea how I will do in 2 months time, but I know I will be in an improved position with this method. I am willing to go for it Do you have any other methods for juggling rigorous work and demanding school curriculum?

I would love to know as well!