The holiday season is officially over, and people everywhere are back to the daily grind, juggling their hectic schedules. It’s easy to stress out when you’re trying to balance classes, a job, extracurricular activities and a social life. The increasing standards and competitive atmosphere surrounding careers forces students to pack their resume with a variety of “fulfilling” activities. But how much can you
include before busy turns into stressful?
Every girl wants to have good grades, be an active member of their team or sorority, make new friends, keep in touch with high school friends, land (and keep!) a job, get enough sleep, and enjoy the social scene of college all at once. We’re being pulled in so many different directions, all while being told that these four years spent at college determine so much of who and what we’ll become as adults.
With talk concerning internships and resume building starting as early as our freshman year, it’s hard to escape the omnipresent pressures of finding a job in the ‘real world’. While you won’t be able to use a time turner like Hermione in Harry Potter, there are little things you can do to help balance out a busy schedule.
Prioritizing is key to maintain a healthy balance. Know which activities are most important to you, and focus on those the most. A part-time job should never take precedent over classes, and same with a sports team or group. Drop out of clubs that you only joined because your roommate did, or tasks you took on only to please your mom. Don’t let your friends peer pressure you into doing activities that you don’t want to or simply don’t have time for. Filling your schedule with things that YOU want to do makes it much more enjoyable to actually do them.
A great way to keep track of your days is to use a planner or calendar. Visualizing what you need to do and how much time you have to do it helps a lot of people accomplish their tasks. Use sticky notes for short-term goals that you’d like to accomplish, and relish the feeling of checking off things on your list. Knowing what you want to get out of a certain activity will keep you motivated and help you decide where on your hierarchy of tasks it should fall.
Once you’ve decided what needs to be done, make a to-do list. It may sound cheesy, but it’s a great way to see what you need to accomplish in a given week. It also ensures that you won’t forget about that essay until the night before or to call your mom back from two days ago. If you can get all of the tasks running through your mind down onto paper, it will help you focus more on the task at hand instead of stressing about what you have to do an hour from now. This clearer focus will make it easier to get everything done on time.
Keeping up on sleep can make all the difference in the world for girls with busy schedules. Make sure you’re getting some shut-eye every night – it will help you feel refreshed and will make juggling all your other activities a lot easier to manage. It’s important to remember to take care of yourself amidst the jam-packed schedules a lot of us keep. Whether it be going for a run, taking a long, hot shower, or hitting up the closest Starbucks, incorporate ‘you’ time into your schedule. Use these moments to catch your breath before sprinting on to the next activity.
Like Kate Reddy in I Don’t Know How She Does It, sometimes being stretched too thin can take its toll on all aspects of your life. Rather then trying to solely just make it through each day, balance your life so that you can excel in the activities that truly matter to you.