Time Management & Your College Application Planning Calendar
At first glance, time management coaching might seem elemental. Perhaps you are already adept at juggling competing responsibilities and proficient at sticking to a schedule. If you are applying to top-tier schools, this is most likely the case. However, the college application process is also most likely layered onto your busy calendar. Applicants are usually tied up with schoolwork, sports, clubs, jobs, and responsibilities at home. They are often studying for standardized exams, researching colleges and their programs, and attending various events at their current school. It is remarkably easy to push the application process, especially the essay writing, to the side.
As a college essay advisor, I help clients build a college application planning calendar that works with their busy schedule. I help my college essay clients keep their foot on the gas throughout the entire application process. I prefer to begin work with a client more than a year before their college application due date, but my specialty is diving into the process at any time and gently hoisting them over each hurdle until they hit submit.
I use various methods to keep clients on track, and none of these methods include applicants (or parents) panicking. I help clients create a spreadsheet where they organize their school list, pertinent information like acceptance rates, number and length of supplemental essays, pending due dates, and a college application planning calendar. We return to the spreadsheet throughout the process, marking off completed work and making adjustments when necessary. I text clients to remind them of their most immediate writing tasks and what is expected at our next meeting. Before we hang up each phone call, we schedule our next. Together we keep all gears in motion while avoiding overwhelm.
Parents are especially appreciative of having a third-party advisor shepherding their college-bound children through the essay writing process. I work in tandem with parents, but I have the distance and objectivity in order to nudge without nagging. I hold their children accountable to deadlines, alleviate what is almost always a stressful time, and help push applicants through procrastination and indecision.
The entire college application process can be lengthy and complex, but the writing is where applicants get stopped up. At first, clients might scoff at this claim, but as soon as they realize how time-consuming writing is, they are glad to have a college essay advisor’s support and expertise.
See my 12-step college timeline here.