Maybe you’re just starting grad school, or this isn’t your first grad school rodeo. Whatever the case, a large part of any successful graduate student career is properly managing what time you spend where. As graduate students, we wear a lot of different hats—teacher, researcher, writer, student, person—and sometimes it’s hard to balance all of those atop a single head. So, lest your noggin become overburdened with academic caps, here are three tips on managing your time in grad school.

1. Get a planner and set it up each week.
This might seem obvious, but many people remember things better when they have it laid out in front of them. Planners are great ways to have a daily, weekly, and monthly outlook and what time needs to be spent where. Many people use Google Calendar, but I’m old-fashioned and prefer a hardcopy planner that I carry around with me. Whatever works for you, find a way to keep track of what you need to do and when you need to do them.

The other secret to planner keeping is making time each week to organize it. Many planners and calendars are not up-to-date because people forget to set aside 5-10 minutes to organize their planner. Have a set time or times when you visit your planner and update it. It can be in those moments before a meeting, right after your lunch break, or even Sunday evening. Whatever works best for you, find a regular time to fill out your calendar.

2. Set timers on your tasks.
Timers can be very helpful for keeping you focused for the right amount of time. Many people will have a specific block of time they set aside for writing or answering emails. That’s great! If you’re feeling overwhelmed and don’t know how much time to give yourself, sit down to do one of those tasks and time how long it takes. Time how long it takes to grade one essay or write one paragraph. Time how long it takes to clear out your inbox. This doesn’t need to be highly regimented! The first round of timers just helps estimate where you’re spending your time and how long tasks take you. Once you know that, you can build a work/chill ratio that suits your needs. Many people use the 40/20 split—40 min on, 20 min on—for longer tasks.

3. Chunk your tasks into smaller ones.
Grad school includes a lot of big projects and big things to get done. Staring down a full dissertation can be daunting. For larger tasks, remember to break them down into smaller, more manageable bites. Maybe one day is for research, one day you have to be in the lab, and another day you can draft material for your work. Great! Whatever you can do to chunk the larger tasks into tasks that are doable in 1-2 hours, the better.
Often, such chunking helps you feel more accomplished. You may not have written the whole dissertation chapter today, but you did complete those notes on that really long theory book you need to return to the library. You may not finished grading everything, but you did grade one assignment. Great!

Final Words of Wisdom
Remember that any time management strategy needs to work for you. Tweak what you find to suit your needs, style, etc.