By:  Danielle Sehnert, Contributing Writer

It is widely accepted as an essential skill and yet incredibly difficult for many to master. It is something our parents and teachers alike have chided us about throughout the years. Time management: two words that never seem to mix, especially for college freshmen.

“I just get distracted easily,” says Cady Barthe, a freshman.

This is a common occurrence for millennial students these days with social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook constantly providing interruptions. A study entitled “How Do Students Value Time” was conducted by Stanford University in 2013 by undergraduate Ganesh Kumaraguru, and it suggests that “the excessive use of Facebook and other social media is correlated with poor time management.”

“When things start piling up, the less productive I am,” says Jessica Johnson, also a member of the class of 2019. “It just gets really hard to manage.”

Incorporating sleep, study time, class time and a social life into a full schedule is definitely demanding, but luckily for freshmen, there are plenty of tips out there designed to help them transition smoothly into the college experience.

Here is some advice to help better your time management skills:

• Don’t bite off more than you can chew: Be sure to space things out and complete tasks in parts.
• Categorize your assignments: Label things as urgent and non-urgent.
• Decide what is taking up the most of your time and minimize it: It’s not an easy feat, but try to stay off of social media!
• Set limits for each task: Create a set time for when you start and stop studying.
• Don’t be so hard on yourself:Stressing out about your assignments is only going to make things worse! Give yourself time to recharge and re-energize.

The class of 2019 has a lot to learn but hopefully these strategies will increase productivity and make this first year a great one!