Managing Your Time

In order to manage your time, you need to prioritize.

In order to prioritize, you need to decide what your purpose for studying abroad is.

I'll give you a hint: It's called studying abroad for a reason...

While there will doubtless be many fun, exciting, and enlightening opportunities during your time abroad, you should not lose focus on the fact that you are there to study. Getting the most out of studying almost always involves showing up for class prepared. Setting aside time to complete readings, homework, studying for tests, and all those exercises that you need to do at home should not be forgotten when you go abroad.

The academic experience at a school outside the United States will probably be very different from the one you receive at home. You will be challenged to adapt to a different teaching style, different requirements, possibly a different language, and many other surprises. All of these adaptations typically require hard work, and often students report they still were unable to achieve the sort of grades they are accustomed to at home. This may well be part of the learning experience, but studying is still vital.

Traveling

Planning your travel can also be an important aspect of your time management abroad. You are in a new place with countless fascinating places to go. However, running somewhere every single weekend and collecting souvenirs will probably not ultimately accomplish your goals of experiencing your host country.

You may find it far more fulfilling to pick several meaningful places to visit and schedule them so that you have time both to travel and enjoy the place where your studies are based. You will feel more at home at your university if you spend some weekends there and can enjoy the local town/city/etc. Not running somewhere every weekend also makes balancing your studies far easier. This may already be accomplished for you if your study abroad program has scheduled excursions.

Avoiding Procrastination

While no doubt teachers and parents have been telling you not to procrastinate for years, this can be particularly important while studying abroad. You are likely to find that since the educational system functions differently than the one back home, projects, assignments, papers, or tests may all be more difficult or have different requirements than you are accustomed to. Teachers will generally be happy to help you understand how to complete your assignments, but if you start the paper the night before, you can't call them at 1 a.m. for help.

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