Ah, overcommitment. Everyone knows about it, and we even hear warnings and horror stories at orientation. Most people hear these and think “That’ll never be me,” but many of us fall victim to overcommitment. From the very beginning of freshman year, to halfway through your college experience, it can happen to anyone. One semester you’re doing just fine and the next you’re up to your eyeballs in school, work, clubs, and activities. The worst part is, you may not realize what’s going on until it is too late. Here are eight signs that you might be overcommitted.
1. Homework during the day? You’ve never met her.
Between classes, work, internships, and extracurriculars, you’re pretty much booked from the time you wake up until dinner time. You don’t even have time to run back to your room during the day, much less whip out assignments or study. Homework is reserved for late at night or crammed into weekends. And boy, do you envy people who can do their homework during the day.
2. You’re not exactly free most nights either.
All of those clubs and extracurriculars you’re involved in seem to only meet at night. Sure, it’s only once a week, but layer on four or five of these bad boys, and you’re booked every night. See you around ten o’clock, homework.
3. You struggle to find time to do your laundry.
Again, free time is hard to come by. Finding a time to commit an hour and a half or two hours for laundry is pretty hard. Plus, you have to find a time when the laundry room is empty because you can’t risk not getting it all done during the time period you set out for yourself. You may or may not be a very aggressive laundry-doer.
4. You eat most meals while doing something else.
You’re either doing homework or finally catching up with friends, but you never just eat to eat. It’s something that you know you have to do for fuel, but you rarely take the time to enjoy it.
5. You have specific times to socialize and hang out with friends.
Is there a special color for friends and social events in your planner? Possibly. It can be hard to find time for friends, especially if you guys are involved in different activities and have different schedules. Social events are things you need to know about well in advance, so you can plan when to do everything else. You have specific days and times for these social interactions, and goodness help anyone who messes that plan up.
6. You sleep like a rock every night or don’t sleep at all.
You sleep hard af every night, because you’re exhausted from the day and know that you need rest to get up and do the same thing the next day. Or, it’s a bad night and you don’t sleep at all. You stay awake thinking about everything that needs to get done, or stay up actually doing those things, and the next thing you know it’s morning.
7. Your planner is your life line.
This little book is everything. EVERYTHING. It has classes, tests, work, meetings, club committees, homework assignments, lunch and dinner dates with friends, and even when to do your laundry. You might even color-code for fun, because yes organizing is fun to you. If you lost you planner, you would definitely cry.
8. You can’t remember the last time you said “no”.
Ah, the culprit. Another club or committee? No problem. Three lunch dates the week of a big exam? You’ve got this. You can’t seem to turn away anyone or anything, and this is probably why your schedule is so hectic.