If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably overcommitted yourself to a ton of extracurriculars. As a result, you likely feel burnt out by everything you need to get done this weekend, and you’re struggling to balance your schoolwork with your social needs. As someone that finds it extremely hard to indulge in alone, quality time, and relaxing at home, I find that I tend to spend a lot of time trying to occupy myself. However, the pressure I put on myself leads to extreme burn out early into the quarter.
Because of this, I’ve come up with ways to help mitigate the stress and pressure I put on myself with self-care tactics that allow me to fully relax and take into consideration my own emotional well-being. Here are some tips and tricks on things I do to stay busy, while also allowing myself to relax and enjoy my college experience here at UC Davis.
- Planning alone time. Pretty self explanatory, I like to keep at least one weekday/weekend to myself, whether that would be a night within the week, or an entire day within the weekend. This usually depends on my schedule for the quarter, and on my workload. For this particular quarter, I have my Friday evenings off, so I try to keep that specific night open for myself to either finish my assignments or work so that I don’t have to worry about anything later during the week. If that specific day isn’t utilized for working on other tasks for school/work, I’ll try to indulge in self-care, whether that’s through taking a walk around my neighborhood, going on facetime with my close friends, or even laying in bed and scrolling through social media. At the end of the day, I just want to have time to relax and enjoy myself and my own presence.
- Utilizing Google Calendar. One of my all time favorite ways to keep organized is Google Calendar, a free website that helps me keep track of all of my obligations. As someone who is a visual learner and enjoys having a visual layout of her week, Google Calendar allows me to have all of that at my fingertips. It’s almost a replacement planner, but digital. By having something to organize my week, I feel less overwhelmed and stressed out, and I’m able to think ahead about what I need to do and get done, and make plans accordingly.
- Having fun. I think the most important step is to make plans to have fun. Whether that’s through the extracurricular activities you sign up for, or classes that you take, it’s important that you decide what you want to do, and commit to certain activities because they pertain to your interest. At the end of the day, the more activities you have on your plate, the less stressful they will be if they are something you’re passionate about, or if they are fun and enjoyable to you. So make sure to choose something you’re excited about!
Overall, plan self-care days outside of school, stay organized and on top of your schedule, and most importantly, have fun! School is hectic and balancing extracurriculars, work, and activities can be hard, so make sure that you take care of yourself, take lots of study breaks, and hang out with family, friends, and loved ones.