Mike Abasov

If you were following any of my advices, you are probably struggling with finding time for everything like I do. I’ve never been so busy in my life, but, as time goes by, I find new ways to make the most out of every hour and not burn out. It gets easier with practice.

Here are a few things you can do to find time for everything and make your time constraint less binding.

Utilize

Look back at your days. You might find that you’re not utilizing a huge junk of time. You spend 2 hour a day commuting while doing nothing but mind wondering? You stay in lines for 10 minutes feeling bored? You wash your frying pan many times every day?

No wonder you feel like there is not enough time for anything! Try this.

Audiobooks for your commute time
I’ve been listening to one business book a week while driving for the last 3 weeks, and it’s an amazing time-saver! Try them at Audible and get a membership, if you find them awesome.

Multitask
Audiobooks is the first steps to multitasking. I also manage to check-in on Foursquare, while waiting for my tall no-whip mocha, or check email, if the line gets lengthy. How can you make the most of your wait time?

Group tasks
This one is about frying pans, for example. The problem with cooking every day is that you need to clean after yourself, heat the pan, etc. every day. Try cooking for a few days ahead in one session. This is also a great way to cut on sandwiches and chinese (nom-nom-nom!).

Utilizing sleep time is bull shit
Sleep is very important. It helps you learn and increases your productivity. You might want to cut on sleep to fit in more (I’m guilty of that), but it only results in low creativity. And low creativity stops you from finding easy and fast solutions (Rework). 

Speed up

You can do a lot of thing much faster.

Say showering. I got this advice from Men’s Health, and it really makes sense to spend under 10 (or even 5) minutes showering.

Or speed reading. As a student you are going to read a lot over a long period of your life. Why not learn to read fast? Try apps like EyeQ.

What else? You can do almost anything faster. For example, if you’re a blogger, check out these articles: “How to Write a Great Blog Post in Just 15 Minutes” or “HOW TO WRITE THREE BLOG POSTS A DAY.”

Hack It

You can be more productive by changing the way you do things, perceive them, or by using some tools. Research how other people make most out of their time. My favourite places are Lifehacker for recipes and Appstorm for apps.

Even such an incompetent source as myself can show you something cool, right? (Smile, you’re on camera ;-).

Classic Time Management

Use a calendar
I prefer iCal (Mac OS), but Google Calendar is pretty good too. Log everything to your calendar: birthdays, classes, regular workout times, etc. I believe that a perfect calendar has no empty spots.

Also, and this is a good one, set up automatic import of your events from websites like Facebook or Meetup.com. This is the most awesome thing that has ever happened to calendars. Ever!

I also use wall calendars to separate some specific categories of activities, like blogging.

To-Do lists
Gotta love them. I use Things (Mac OS, iPad, iPhone), combined with iCal and Highrise for my to-dos. I separate tasks by activities, such as “School” or “Shopping,” and by projects, such as “HootSuite Internationalization” or “Commerce 295.” 

The main reason to use these lists is pure simple—you forget less. The runner-up reason is also about memory. When you backup your memory in such a way, you can concentrate your thoughts on more important issues and be more efficient. 

That’s it

Sorry for taking so much of your time. But look, if you were reading this post at 1,000 words per minute, while on a bus taking a break from listening to “Crush It!”… you get the point!

How do you fit everything you need to do in you tight schedule? And, on another note, am I crazy?

“Trust Agents” is a bestselling book written by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith about social media, networking, and… well, building trust for success.

The book explains how the rules of branding has changed not only in terms of HOW you should brand, but also WHY. 

It mixes theory and interesting stories, and showcases with direct practical action plans that will get you on top of the new trends in personal and corporate marketing.

My favorite point in the book is about changing your perception of life and viewing it as a game. To some extent, this point is described by me in one of my latest posts. 

The authors also talk about building your network and leveraging your connections in a good, trustworthy way.

In my opinion, it is a great book for students, because it shows a lot of great timeless tools you didn’t know about before. It also makes you rethink you current activities and start planning your future career with better understanding of the cultural shifts that are happening right now.

You go to school. You study. You nurture your marks and learn what you can, trying to have fun along the way.

If we look at it from a different perspective, your time in school is like an old arcade game. You make different moves, and you collect points as you play. These points are essential to your final score. 

To get more points, you can use some secret pathway like in Super Mario Bros. Or collect bananas instead of cherries like in Ms. Pacman. In the real life, you aslo can do much more than just study.

You can work part-time, and not at a coffee shop but at some small position in the industry. You can go to conferences, network, read books and blogs, make time to be in student clubs, and much much more.

You can start building your own brand.

By the time you graduate, you might grow your resume substantially. All your successes and failures add up and make a huge difference in what you become and how high you get.

It’s just like in Pacman, when you were asked to enter your 3-letter initials, and the game would place you somewhere in the Top 10. Or not place you anywhere at all.

You should look at your time in college as a game — a game you can win by simply playing it better. Moreover, you can look in the same way on your whole life, as described by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith in “Trust Agents.”

You are the only person who decides how successful you will become. I challenge you to play this game.

Will you?