My College Student Says They Have No Time. What Are They Doing All Day?

One of the things I hear from the college students I work with is, “I’m so busy. I have no time to get anything done!” This is amazingly funny for me to hear. I see 30 clients a week, a mom to four, have an Etsy shop, and yet I still find time to workout daily and play tennis. So how are they so busy with 4-5 classes a week and not working? Seriously, what are they doing all day?

When a student tells me they have no time, I want to take a closer look at what’s actually happening.

Because sometimes, the problem isn’t that they don’t have enough time. It’s that they’re so overwhelmed they can’t figure out how to get started.

“I Have No Time!” Let’s Look at Your Schedule.

I recently worked with a college student who kept telling me how busy she was. I wanted her to join clubs but she kept saying she had no time to get her assignments done and felt constantly behind.

So we sat down and dissected her schedule.

She had classes. She was involved in one club. She didn’t have a job, and she wasn’t going to the gym.

I looked at her schedule and said, “You have enough spare time to have a full-time job. Where is your time going?”

The answer wasn’t that she was lazy or didn’t care about school.

She was frozen.

She was so overwhelmed by everything she needed to do that she couldn’t get herself to start. Instead of working on assignments, she was scrolling on her phone or watching YouTube.

She was spending time distracting herself from the very things that were causing her stress.

And the longer she avoided those assignments, the more overwhelming they felt.

This is something I see with college students more often than parents might realize.

When Overwhelm Makes You Freeze

When we feel overwhelmed, our stress response can take over. We may feel anxious, avoidant, or stuck. Instead of taking action, we freeze.

Think about what happens when you look at a long list of assignments and have absolutely no idea where to begin.

You might think about everything you have to do, how long it’s going to take, how much work it will be, and how far behind you already feel.

Your brain starts treating the whole situation like one enormous problem.

So you avoid it.

You check your phone. You watch another video. You tell yourself you’ll start in an hour.

And then you feel guilty because you haven’t done anything.

Now you’re even more stressed.

It’s a cycle: overwhelm leads to avoidance, avoidance leads to more overwhelm, and getting started becomes harder and harder.

This is why simply telling your college student to manage their time better doesn’t always help. They may need to learn how to manage the feeling of overwhelm that is getting in the way of using their time.

How I Helped Her Find Her Time

With this student, we worked on executive functioning skills and strategies to help her become more proactive instead of staying stuck in that stress response.

We didn’t start by telling her to work harder or fill every minute of her day with productivity.

We started by helping her break things down.

First, get everything out of your head.

Write down the assignments, deadlines, and responsibilities you’re trying to remember. Keeping everything in your head makes it harder to figure out what actually needs to happen.

Second, break the big tasks into smaller steps.

“Write my paper” can feel enormous. “Open the assignment instructions and identify what the professor is asking for” feels much more manageable.

You don’t need to finish the entire assignment. You need to identify the first step.

Third, choose one thing and start.

Not five things. Not your entire to-do list. One thing.

Set a short period of time to work on it. Put your phone somewhere you can’t easily reach it. Give yourself permission to work on the task without expecting perfection.

Often, the hardest part is starting.

Fourth, challenge your assumptions about how long things take.

My student discovered something important: her assignments often didn’t take nearly as long to complete as she had imagined.

She had been spending so much time worrying about the work that she wasn’t giving herself the opportunity to discover that she could actually do it.

And what happened?

She found time.

She started getting things done. She became more proactive. And she wasn’t spending as much time feeling overwhelmed by everything she had to do.

I break all of these tips down into a 3 page guide https://www.etsy.com/listing/4599482200/executive-functioning-guide-college

What Can Parents Do When Their College Student Says They Have No Time?

First, resist the urge to jump in and manage everything for them. The goal is to help your student develop the skills to manage their own responsibilities.

Instead of saying, “You just need to get organized,” try asking:

• “Can we look at your schedule together and figure out where your time is going?”
• “What is the one assignment that feels most overwhelming right now?”
• “What’s the smallest step you could take to get started?”
• “Do you think you’re spending more time worrying about the work than actually doing it?”

These questions can help your student begin to identify what’s getting in their way without making them feel judged.

And remember, not every time-management struggle is caused by overwhelm. Some students need help with planning, prioritizing, distractions, sleep, or study skills. Persistent difficulties may also warrant support from a campus learning specialist, counselor, or other qualified professional.

The goal is to figure out what’s actually happening rather than assuming your student just needs to try harder.

College Success Is About More Than Working Harder

I want college students to understand that they don’t need to be productive every minute of the day. They need to learn how to use their time, break down responsibilities, and recognize what happens when stress gets in the way of taking action.

These are skills that can be learned and practiced.

If your college student struggles with managing assignments, getting started, reading a syllabus, or figuring out what to do next, I created the College Readiness Shop to provide practical, easy-to-follow tools that help students navigate college more independently.

You can explore the resources here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4599482200/executive-functioning-guide-college

Sometimes, the answer isn’t finding more hours in the day.

Sometimes, it’s learning how to get unstuck long enough to use the hours you already have.

-Keri