Thu, 28 Mar, 2024

Struggling With Time and Money Management

By Nisha Dhungana

Picture Courtesy: http://www.heartlandorganizing.com/what-we-do/results-you-can-expect

The constant struggle of balancing time, money, emotions and pressure is called Student life. Most students who are studying in bachelor’s level are stepping into adulthood. Everything changes so rapidly and the energy is so high that the urge to learn everything reaches the topmost level. Some people can balance everything, but many people struggle to manage time. I, personally struggle with time as well as money management. It is really difficult to make everything just perfect in time. That applies not only to studies and extra activities but to money as well. No matter how much I try to save to buy the shoes I loved or to watch the most awaited movie, I find myself unable to save at all.

Lately, I have realized that if this time management issue continues at the same pace, I am likely going to end up achieving and learning nothing. Therefore, I researched a lot, went through lots of online articles, YouTube videos and even took advice from people who are good at managing time. I found out that most of the time management issues arise due to our tendency to procrastinate on almost everything. Whether it is an assignment or a club activity, we push the work for later on and later on changes to tomorrow and then to a weekend and at last, we end up with a pile of work to be done by next day. Making a planner is one of the most effective ways to reduce procrastination. A Planner is a notebook or some applications where we usually plan our months, week and days. The Planner can help in recording and planning activities to achieve a certain goal. It is always necessary to divide the goals according to your priorities and allocating proper time for achieving the goal. To avoid last minute hassle, we must stay organized. This might not seem like quite an important tip but being organized can really reduce the time required to complete a task. It is always easy to find something if it is always kept in a proper place, plus staying organized is relaxing to the brain and can reduce stress. Nothing is certain and hence, it is necessary to get ready for some unplanned change in routine.

RAC is one of the best methods to manage time. -  R stands for Record, which means recording each and every task performed in a day and amount of time taken to complete the task.

- A stands for Analyze, which means to analyze the recorded activities and figuring out the unnecessary time wastage.

- C stands for Change which means to change the day to day activities if needed.

Money management is another issue in student’s life. Most of us usually run out of money before the allocated period. I found some amazing money management tips which help control our expenditures and lets us spend wisely. Making an expenditure log is one of them. Use a planner or any application (Example, Money Record) to keep records of income and expenditure. This helps in finding where we unnecessarily spend so that we can cut them off from the next day. Reusing and recycling work best for me because I am a person who is never bored of arts and crafts. Reusing old products or recycling them to build another product is very effective, environment wise and money wise as well. The need of buying new things is reduced and as well as the optimum use of an available resource is achieved. The instant instinct to buy some cosmetics, or chocolates, or dresses results in an unnecessary expenditure of money. We must try and avoid such tendency and keep the money until the end of the month and then buy something huge or important in the end.

Every person or every living being struggle with certain issues in their lives and the best way to avoid them is by staying calm. We must be able to understand that every problem comes with a solution. We must try to find the solutions rather than panicking about it.