Just as you thought you were learning to manage college life, along comes December! December is a notoriously busy month for college students. Many face exams, travel and extra social activities — all at the same time.

It's no surprise that students often start to feel overwhelmed by their schedules at this time of the year, especially if they signed up for a lot of social and recreational commitments when school started. As assignments and social obligations pile up, it may be time for you to take a good look at your time management skills.

It can be tough to know what to do when you start feeling the strain of a busy schedule. There's so much to do in college and a lot of it isn't stuff you can put off until a more convenient time. If you're feeling the December time crunch, you might want to start by taking a few deep breaths and looking at your options.

Campus Resources

Fortunately, most campuses have services that can help to make this busy time easier. Many colleges offer assistance through their guidance offices to help new students adjust to college life.

If study skills are a problem and you feel yourself slipping behind every day, you could start at the learning lab or study skill center.

Good study skills promote independent learning, so there are many strategies available to help students achieve their goal of educational success. However, you're the only one who can assess your own study skills and habits. With some help, you can assess what you need to improve or develop. To stay on top of your studies, it might be time to do a little soul searching.

Time Management

How we use our time is often a result of habit. If you're just starting out in college, you might not have developed good time management skills yet. After all, in high school you had teachers and parents managing a lot of your time for you. College offers more independence, but that also brings more responsibility. The following strategy may help you see how you use your time.

Try keeping a detailed diary for a week so you can see where you are spending your time and how long certain activities take. Don't forget to write everything down, including television, game and computer time.

This is an excellent way to keep track of where your time goes. You may be surprised at how much time you can redirect to studying without giving up the leisure and relaxation activities you enjoy.

After keeping records for one week, you will see how much time you have available and when. Assigning study time to fit this schedule shows how much time you have for other activities. You will now be able to create your hourly, daily and weekly schedule.

Establishing an hourly schedule for each day allows you to block out times over which you have no choice. Scheduled classes, labs, tutorials, meals, part-time work and sleep won't change. In fact, these areas should be the top priority.

If you participate in a lot of extracurricular activities, you may have to prioritize all your commitments. If it looks as if you truly cannot handle everything on your plate, then something should be dropped. You may want to say goodbye to the extracurricular activities you enjoy the least.

Figuring out how to fit in schoolwork can take some practice. Estimating how much time assignments will take can be adjusted throughout the first half of the semester. Breaking the assignment down into manageable tasks helps to fit it into the schedule.

Focusing on the important tasks is critical. Spending too much time on the relatively unimportant parts of an assignment can take time away from what really needs to be done. Learning to prioritize is essential.

Most of this will not be new to you. In fact, many students have sessions in high school on study habits. However, what might be new is that you are expected to become a truly independent learner once you're in college. Teachers will no longer check up on you!