It's about time! Start the school year off with a 'new your calendar

Girls' Life, Oct-Nov, 2003 by Jennifer Pangyanszki

What does your schedule look like for this year? If you started off the school year by deciding to make honor roll, join track team, run for class treasurer and save the environment, all while spending more time with your buds and BF, your agenda is jam-packed. Overbooked? Help is here! Follow GL's 10 simple steps to putting time on your side....

TALLY TIME

Grab a notebook, your favorite pen and a calculator, because it's time for some serious number-crunching.

1. Start a time diary.

Your first mission is to take inventory of how you currently spend your time. Before you tackle this, make sure the upcoming week looks pretty typical. If, out of nowhere, you have three tests, a soccer tournament, a band concert, two BFF birthdays, and your grandparents are visiting from Alaska, consider waiting until next week to tackle this project. (If all that activity is a normal week for you, our schedule-saving tips are just in time to help you get on track!)

For seven days straight, jot down everything you do and how long it takes. And we do mean clock every minute. Sleep and school will eat up the biggest weekday chunks, but every detail counts, no matter how small. Yes, even spying on your crush's locker for 20 minutes every day after school.

2. Categorize, categorize, categorize.

Now that you have your time log, break it down into categories for meals, homework, sports, school clubs, visiting friends, talking on the phone, surfing the Web, doing stuff with your family, whatever.

Be specific if Lounging around? Hmmm. could fall under a "Relaxation" category. But if you're lounging around and listening to the new Evanescence album, maybe "Music Listening" would be a more appropriate label. When you double up on activities, consider your primary purpose. In a two-hour study period with your pal, are you getting your homework done ... or squeezing in some catch-up time with your pal? If you find yourselves gabbing more about Grind god Mike Vogel than current events, consider this hang time, not homework time.

3. Add it up.

It's math time! Calculate totals for how much time you spend every day in each category. Add up your weekly totals, too. Any surprises? Probably. Those 15 minutes you spend walking each way to and from school every day add up to two-and-a-half hours in a week (and you spend nearly as much time walking past your crush's locker)!

TWEAK TIME

Now that you know how you're spending all those minutes, it'll be easier to figure out where you can make some improvements.

4. Outta Here!

Jot a G (stands for "Gotta go!") next to everything in your time diary that you think is a total waste. Star-gazing at your Justin Timberlake poster for two hours every weekend surely fits this category. You and your sis regularly spend hours a day playing tug o' war with the remote control? Gotta go! See how many silly things in your world are major time-killers? Who knew? If you always miss the first 20 minutes of Gilmore Girls because you and your little brother argue about whose turn it is to load the dishwasher; a permanent solution is in order.

5. Slim 'n' Trim

Add T ("Trim this!") to things you want to keep on your schedule but can pare down some. Like, you could vow not to blow your hair straight every single morning. Think of it like a financial budget but with hours instead of dollars. Rather than playing video games for 10 hours every week, make it five. Do you spend two hours a day instant-messaging your gals? If it's cutting into more pressing (or enjoyable) activities, knock your IM time down to an hour or, even better, every other day.

6. Find the Keepers

Mark a D ("Definite do!") next to items that aren't going anywhere--because they're your absolute faves or you're stuck with them (like school). Committed to your daily jogs? Don't dismiss them. Love writing to your pen pal in Peoria? Give her a regular time slot. Later, you can go back and see if there are more activities you can trim or switch to an every-other week basis. But if you're required to practice piano for exactly a half hour every day, stick with it.

TRACK TIME

To organize your tight new schedule, you'll need a calendar. Go poster-size or pocket-size--whatever appeals to you!

7. Down With the D's

This space is for all those "Definite do's" that can't be easily rescheduled. Fill in regular practices, meetings and events first. If you're double-booked, you'll see it right away. It could be as simple as rescheduling one event or as tough as totally choosing between two things.

Include due dates for big school assignments, like tests or book reports. Ask teachers if they have long-term projects looming in the future--they'll be psyched you're planning ahead! Also include important events, like birthday parties or babysitting jobs. Don't forget things you want to forget, like your grandparents' 50th anniversary! It might be ice cold on your social thermometer, but you have to put in an appearance.

HINT Keeping an honest record of everything you do for a week is actually going to take up a lot of your time, but it'll pay off in a big way. So to make things easier on yourself, choose a method: Either record each activity the minute you finish it, noting the time you started and finished, or set aside a half an hour at the end of each day to recall all the activities you did, estimating as you go. If you can't decide which method works best for you, experiment with one each day. You'll figure out fairly quickly if you have a great memory or better moment-to-moment skills.