Every college students know about the three pillars of college: grades, sleep, and a social life. By the end of college freshman's first semester it's very difficult to find a healthy balance of the three. In fact, this has been made into a multitude of relatable memes and online tropes. At first, transitioning from your high school schedule may seem doable, but often moving out of the house is enough to make balancing your schedule impossible. Incoming students quickly learn how the structured nature of high school schedules contributed to being organized. Here's a couple of ways you can better balance grades, sleep, and a social life.Stop Procrastinating
Instead of using that one or two-hour gap between classes to nap or watch that one more episode of Netflix, make an effort to do some work. Chipping away at your work in small increments may seem difficult, but it's better than waiting until later and being overwhelmed by a whole project the night before it's due. We all know how stressful it is to realize you haven't started an essay due at midnight the same day. Don't let that be you... again.
Get rid of distractions
when you're in the middle of an assignment it's incredibly easy to get distracted by outlets like your phone. That Snapchat or text notification might be tempting, but try to ignore it. Once you get distracted, you ruin the workflow and have to spend extra time starting again. Instead of having to deal with this, set aside your electronics for half an hour at first and concentrate on work. I guarantee you will see results.
Learn to time manage
Since the way college schedules are structured is around whatever your particular classes are it's easy to have a lot of free time you don't know what to do with. Back in high school, schedules (for the most part) were more standardized in their structure, making the time students have to do work more clearly. To get more work done efficiently, it's important to personally set goals for yourself for certain times. Doing so forces yourself to be committed to the self-set deadlines and serves as motivation to doing work.
Join clubs
Apart from being a great way to find people with similar interests, clubs are a great outlet for stress. By joining an organization, it's basically given that you're going to make new friends. Forming study groups with these people will not only serve as a way to improve your grades, but connect with others while doing so.
