Originally Posted by goodnews.inc

Pretty much. That does get hard, I agree, especially with a job that has sporadic hours and scheduling, but my main goal with a tight schedule is waking up at the same time every week/work day.

I tried to do that last year, but that schedule wouldn't last any more than 1-2 weeks. And eventually, I would get up, find myself still tired, and go back to sleep. How did you go about keeping the same schedule for so long? Any tips?

Depends on the course. Up to the first midterm, I do my best to go to every class. If I see after the first midterm that the tests are only from the presentation slides, then I don't bother going to that class for the rest of the semester, unless there are guest lectures or films shown. I've only had one or two courses like this though.

Aaaaand Friday classes depend on how alive I feel in the morning.

Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~

I tried to do that last year, but that schedule wouldn't last any more than 1-2 weeks. And eventually, I would get up, find myself still tired, and go back to sleep. How did you go about keeping the same schedule for so long? Any tips?

I commute from Square One but live near Streetsville. I try to get in for my volunteer shifts by 8:15 AM, and since this means my family would have to get up ridiculously early and brave traffic to drop me off before going to work themselves, I just started taking the bus.

The only bus that will take me in by 8:15 AM leaves Square One at 7:37 AM. The only connecting bus leaves a bus stop near my home at 7:11 AM. I need to be up reasonably early because I usually wait about 10-15 minutes for the bus so that I don't miss it.

Even when I have later classes or no class, I keep to that schedule because it becomes habitual and hard to break out of the routine. A lot of it has to do with necessity. I was on a similar schedule as a first year who commuted but I'd fall asleep in class because I wasn't used to the workload. I've been commuting for about 16 months in total now, and to be able to handle a commute that is about 2 hours and 45 minutes each day, without falling asleep everywhere, you need to schedule decently.

I find that most people can schedule, but neglect other parts of their lives that affect their ability to keep to a schedule. For instance, if they're stressed out about something, and don't work through it, they might be tempted to spend days watching TV/gaming/sleeping to cope. If they're not eating right, they might just attribute their tiredness to a lack of sleep and sleep more than they need to. Same for a balanced diet/lack of exercise.

Additionally after a long day, most people need time to unwind and do things that will keep them wired up pretty late. I'm guilty of that. After a 14 hour day, I tend to watch episodes of the Daily Show pretty late, can't fall asleep and then sneak in naps whenever I can.

Taking care of yourself goes a long way toward good time management.

ECON 1BB3: Went to 1 class.
CHEM 1A03: Missed 1 class.

Definitely varies.

Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~

I tried to do that last year, but that schedule wouldn't last any more than 1-2 weeks. And eventually, I would get up, find myself still tired, and go back to sleep. How did you go about keeping the same schedule for so long? Any tips?

you need to have the discipline to go to sleep at 10:30 - 11:30 on the weekdays.

I tried to go to most classes. Some days I was just too tired and said screw it though. And I just flat out stopped going to chem lectures for the last third of the course - they were completely useless.

I never skip classes in my school life until I came to university. First semester, I attended every single class and tutorials but in second semester, I started skipping some classes (especially french class) because of too much homework and I needed time to finish them all or I just found the class boring and it is easier to do some self studying. I am known to be a procrastinator so that's why I do it.

It varies for sure, but the class has to be just horrible for me to skip for that reason.

If I do skip, it is most definitely because of a hangover.

But Id say I go to class well over 90% of the time.

I went to almost all my lectures in first year. I felt that if I didn't go, I'd be more likely to not pay attention to the material on my own time.

However, I rarely went to Chem 1AA3 tutorials ... (they were utterly boring and useless).