Last Wednesday, I moved into my dorm as a freshman along with the rest of the student athletes. I am in a quint dorm, and I have a few days until my other roommates get here. Being here early has it's ups and downs. A few of the ups are that I can set up first. It's quiet. I can order books early, and I can explore the campus and help my roommates with anything directions. One of the downs is that if I get locked out of my room and I forget my combo to get in, I have no one to let me in.

Luckily it will only be a few days until I am not alone anymore. Besides, running on the cross country team keeps me busy. We have practice twice a day, we eat every meal together, and although they do give us some free time in between things, we do activities together. Last week, we all went to the beach together.

So far, I have enjoyed living in a new state. The school I attend is right near the ocean. It was within the first twenty four hours of being on campus that I learned that I could walk to the closest beach. Since I've had time to explore a little, I guess you could say I took a walk almost everyday since I got here.

Being here early has made me realize a few things. One of them being that I need stop procrastinating and work on my time management. As much as I am here early for preseason, I also have things I need to get done at one point or another before school starts. Balancing time is something that I should figure out before I will need to do more of it later on when I have classwork, cross country, and anything else I will be doing without stressing myself out.

As an easily distracted student, I have found that if I don't let myself go on my phone or get a snack until I have accomplished what I was going to accomplish. For now, it is just when I am going to leave the dorm to get to practice, if I go on a walk, when will I be back so I can get to dinner on time and still have time to shower.

As I was making the transition into college, I wanted to know more about what helps to stay focused. One of the things I found was that what you put into your body makes a difference. Eating an healthier will not only help with focusing, but a healthier mind. Another thing that typically helps with staying on task is taking short breaks to do something else. That may sound contrary to focusing on one thing and getting things done, but taking a five minute break to organize or go down the hall to the vending machine is helpful. If you are studying and need to focus, I am sure you have heard that you are not supposed to studying for long hours straight. Study for two hours, take an hour off, and study for another two hours.

Last thing that I will talk about that I find useful is prioritizing things. What is the most important thing to get done and what can wait? Watching cat videos can come after studying for your exam. Responding to an email your professor sent you is more important than making plans to get lunch on Friday. Sorting out what is most important and coming up with a plan for what you will get done when may even lesson your work load as the week goes on if you know ahead of time everything you need to get done. It's an easy and efficient way to stay organized and not get stressed out because you forgot something.

These were just a few of the things I have found are helpful to me. Not everyone is the same and has different habits for staying on task and time management. I wish everyone who is just starting or returning to college the best of luck.