8/24/2020
Managing your time while in pharmacy school, or any professional school environment, is possibly the most challenging part of the whole 4 years! Striking just the right balance between studying, classes, leadership roles, exercise, and maybe even personal time, seems almost impossible. But, fear not, it has been done before, and you can do it now as a student pharmacist! So here of some of my tips, the best ways I know how to organize my life in order to be successful in pharmacy school!
- Keep a running to do list. I have used several platforms for this including the app Wunderlist, the notes app on my phone, and a word document saved on the desktop of my computer. This includes anything involving school or personal. It gives me so much satisfaction to mark things off the list!
2. Prioritize things on your to do list in order to be sure you meet deadlines. Use this prioritized list in order to make time for the most pressing tasks.
3. Use a concept called “time blocking.” This is relatively simple, and is one of the ways I use to be sure I make time for everything I need to do. I divide time on my calendar into different colors for all the various areas I’m focusing on. For example, classes are blue, organization meetings are purple, and work is green. I build in time for studying, making dinner, even naps! Setting limits on how long you can spend on each task can help you keep focused and be sure you have time to fit in everything necessary.
4. Try to get an idea of generally how long it will take you to complete a given task. For example, I know that writing out notes for a 50 slide powerpoint will take roughly 2 hours. I know that making a powerpoint for an organization meeting will take about 45 minutes. Getting an understanding of this will help you to be more realistic when creating your schedule.
5. If you’re planning to work during school, aim for a goal number of hours per week & explain to your manager the importance of having a set and predictable schedule. I work several different jobs to be sure I am well rounded & get the best experience possible. I let all my managers know well before the semester starts what days I am able to work and how long each shift should be. If I know that I will be working every Thursday night, it will help me to be better prepared for an assignment that may be due Friday.
6. Build in time for studying everyday! If I know that my next test is a week away and I have 6 powerpoint of material to cover, I will work backwards to be sure I cover everything well in advance. I organize & write out my notes each night after class so I never get too behind.
7. Be sure to give yourself some personal time! I know it’s hard when it seems like there’s not enough hours in the day, but if you don’t take care of yourself first, you won’t be able to efficiently do everything else you need to. I give myself time for naps, date nights with my husband, and leisurely dinners while watching my favorite Netflix shows!
8. Invest in a good calendar system! Everyone’s ideal method will be different, and some people even use multiple to be most efficient. For me, I use a Google Calendar so that I can visually see everything happening in my day with a color coded key. This automatically syncs with my apple calendar, so that if I don’t have my computer available, I can still check the calendar app on my phone to schedule something. My apple calendar also houses all the invitations via Outlook calendar, which Mercer and my work both use. The downfall of the Apple calendar is that it doesn’t maintain the colors used in the Google Calendar. You can see from the photo below that all imported Google Calendar events show up as light blue, anything I put directly into the Apple calendar from my phone is dark blue, and accepted Outlook Calendar invitations are orange.
