I always feel like I am too busy to stray from my normal routine of going to classes, staying on top of homework, turning in assignments on time, making time to cook and eat, and getting to bed at a semi-decent time to do it all over again the next day. It can be hard for me to even take time to study because I am trying to maintain everything else.

When it gets around to exams time there is this method I have been using to manage to squeeze in study time. A week before I have to take an exam I tell myself I am going to just take 15 minutes to study. With my busy schedule, I still have time to spare 15 minutes; it is not that big of a time commitment. Fifteen is the perfect number to get me to actually study. I attempted to tell myself 30 minutes before, but it did not work. I would end up pushing it off because it seemed like too much time to commit to.

I have stuck with 15 and it is a very unintimidating number, and I follow through every time. Once I have begun studying I end up going past the 15 minute mark because I have a flow going and I will repeatedly tell myself just five more minutes then the next thing I know an hour has gone by.

My system has worked so well for me that I started applying it to other things I wanted to make time for. At first, it was to make time to exercise, and now I have branched out to hobbies that I mostly did before I was in college like playing video games and reading books that aren’t textbooks.

Mentally putting aside 15 minutes to do the things I want has helped me do more in a day. In the end, it doesn’t take my time away from the normal things in my routine it has helped me realize that I do have more time than I think, I don’t have to get stuck doing the same things. It has made me happier and all it took was 15 minutes.