How I Manage my Time as a Student Entrepreneur, 350+ Internships and more...

Hey there,

Things have been crazy lately. We just crossed 100,000+ people on our Leaders of Today newsletter. I don’t know if I have fully processed this since everything has happened so quickly. But I promise you one thing. I will make sure I create the most value-driven weekly newsletter for you. And go above and beyond to do that.

What to Expect This Week:

• Internships: 350+ Internships

• Deep Dive: 3 Steps I follow to Manage my Time

• Opportunities: $100,000 Prize, Youth Leadership Program and more

read time: 8 mins

350+ Internships by Intern Insider

You asked and I delivered.

I am so happy to share that I have partnered with my friends at Intern Insider to bring you a list of 375+ Internships in the US and Canada. Check it out here.

There are a bunch of job boards out there. But what I find different about this list is that their team manually goes through each job to ensure it’s high quality and the company is actively recruiting.

They also go above and beyond to send you a customised list for you every week on their newsletter.

You can subscribe to their newsletter here.

How I Manage my Time as a Student Entrepreneur

Ever since I started my nonprofit in grade 9, I always found it difficult to juggle everything.

It always felt like I was involved in so many things and wouldn’t do any of them with my best effort.

I kept going into a cycle where I felt like I would’ve to disappoint someone - whether it’s my teachers, my friends or my team.

Things really hit the fan in 2021 when I moved to Canada for university.

I felt a sense of burnout and just wanted to give up.

I would struggle to get out of bed, would distract myself by partying a lot and wouldn’t attend most of my classes.

This went on for months.

Until I failed my first course.

It hit me really hard - I thought I was going to lose my scholarship.

I knew something had to change.

I couldn’t live like that anymore. It was not sustainable.

Since then, I have tried and tested many different things. I wouldn’t say I have fully figured it out but I definitely feel like I have made progress.

Here’s 3 steps that have worked well for me:

(Please note that although this works for me, it may not work for you. Feel free to try and experiment different things to figure out what work for you)

Step 1: Balance is B*llsh#t

One of the words I really hate is balance. If you look up the definition of the word balance, this is what it says:

This suggests that if you want to have “balance”, you’ve to give equal time to everything you’re involved in.

But if you give the same amount of time to everything you’re involved in, you will get average results in all of them (all other factors equal).

Average time = Average results

*Prioritisation enters the chat*

Here’s how I think about it:

Let’s say you’re a big bucket and the water inside is time:

Now think about what your “life buckets” are at this stage of your life.

Then assign a % of your time to each one of your buckets. Do this based on what’s most important you and make sure you differentiate between your needs vs wants.

For me:

• Leaders of Today: 45%

• Health: 20%

• School: 16%

• Social: 9%

• Other: 10%

Now pour the water in the big bucket into the smaller buckets:

This really helps me understand what is most important to me. But all of this is just in theory.

To understand my priorities on a more practical level, this is what I do:

Step 2: Time Budgeting

Last year, I came across the idea of being a ‘Time Billionaire’ on Sahil Bloom’s newsletter.

The idea here is that we are so obsessed with billionaires - but as a 20-something year old, we have over 2 billion seconds left.

Why don’t we ever consider ourselves as Time Billionaires?

The point: Time truly is our biggest asset.

So how about we manage our time the same we manage our money.

Every week, we have 168 hours in our “time bank account”. Out of that, let’s take out 7.5 hours x 7 days = 52.5 hours.

This leaves us with 115.5 hours each week.

Now let’s account for the non-negotiables:

• Workout (Health): 1.5 hour x 3 days = 4.5 hours

• Classes (School): 4 classes x 3 hours = 12 hours

• Night Routine (Health): 1 hour x 5 days = 5 hours

• Mosque (Health): 4 hours w commute x 1 day = 4 hours

Balance = 115.5 - 25.5 = 90 hours

Let’s allocate the remaining time based on my buckets above.

• Leaders of Today = 52 hours (45% of 115.5 waking hours)

• Health = 23 (20%) - (4+5+4.5) = 9.5 hours

• School = 18 (16%) - 12 = 6 hours

• Social = 11 hours (9%)

• Other = 14 hours (>10%)

One of my biggest weaknesses over the years has been I overpromise and underdeliver. This is because I overestimate how much time I have and say yes to so many things.

Doing this exercise has helped my decision making process easier and makes it easier to say NO.

I found this really cool template online to make it easier for you to do this exercise. Check it out here

Step 3: Time Blocking

Now that we know our priorities and have a time budget, the last thing we need to do is to put this into practice.

One of my favourite quote is “A man that fails to plan, plans to fail”.

Every day, as part of my night routine I usually plan my next day on G-calendar.

Here’s 10 principles I follow when planning my calendar:

1. Wake up at 5.30am, Sleep at 10pm. 7.5 hours of sleep everyday.

2. Color code based on buckets. LOT (Black), Other work (Navy Blue), School (Orange), Health (Light Blue), Social (Green), Other (Purple)

3. Classes on Mon-Thurs (9-11am)

4. Use google appointment (or Calendly) for people to book meetings

5. No meetings before 12pm. Meeting available only on Tue and Thu from 12-3pm (back to back).

6. Mon, Wed is for “doing the work” - outreach, newsletter, growth, etc. Tues and Thur for maintenance.

7. Night Routine, at least 5 times a week.

8. “Coffee chats” only on Friday (15 mins)

9. Take all meetings virtually, unless necessary. If meeting can be an email, push for that.

10. Have an “Agenda” or specific expectations before meeting. If it’s not a heck yes, it’s a NO.

So that’s it. That’s how I manage my time.

But I would be lying if I told you that I do this every single day of the week. All the 3 steps are systems I have created for my “ideal” life.

A lot of days, I don’t follow this. Just like you, I have many flaws and am very imperfect. This is what I strive for and try my best to work towards everyday.

Use this as a template and something to work towards. Find and experiment what works for you.

And remember this:

• If you have 30% today and you give 30%. You have given 100%.

• The currency of success is progress. Make 1% progress everyday. 

Opportunities This Week

In addition to these, here’s the full list of 50+ Youth Leadership Opportunities.

My friend, before I go - I just wanted to share some vulnerability. Writing to 100,000+ people is super scary. Especially when it’s something so personal, you know? But I am reminded everyday by people in our community how lucky I am to do this work. At the end of the day, I am just a boy from Tanzania who wants to have some impact. If any of my work has resonated with you or there is any way I can support you, please please reply to this email. I make sure I reply to every single email and I promise to try my best to support you in your journey.

Hope you have had an amazing start to your year, my friend! With love,

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One of the goals of Leaders of Today is to ensure we remove gatekeepers and democratise access to opportunities. But in order for us to do this, we all have to come together ⭕️ Keeping this in mind, I would love for you to forward this with your network. Whether it’s your friends, classmates or colleagues. And to reward you, I will take out 15 mins of my time to have a 1-1 meeting with you for every 5 people that you refer.