How far do you stretch yourself?

Everyone has a different perspective on college: some people do only the work that’s necessary and enjoy their newfound freedom, while others fill their blocks of time with attendance in extracurricular groups and part-time jobs to keep themselves occupied. 

I know some people can handle a higher workload, fifteen-plus hours, with ease, and I know a few people who, if they stretched just a little bit more, they would have the same volume as a bug splat on the windshield of a car.

Not everyone can handle the same amount of obligations, and, when we overload our schedule, our outlook on “the best four years of our lives” can darken. 

For those that are struggling with balancing their time during a hectic semester, I may have a couple of suggestions that might bring a little bit of levity to your situation. 

Now, I’m not an expert – I didn’t flesh these examples out with thorough research – so you may take that as you will. But I am a student, and I’ve also had to learn these tips.

Everyone has a schedule for class and activities, but you may need to reevaluate how you look at your schedule. What I find helpful is listing some of the important things that need to be done during the week, and what I would be able to put off temporarily. 

For this, I recommend a planner. I keep a simple planner in my backpack. Ideally, it’s there to be written in everyday, but it helps on days when it seems like my work is stacked beyond the ceiling. Everything I need to do goes on a page, and then I can categorize each task in order of importance or how long it would take to complete.

You’re the best assessor of your time. 

I wouldn’t recommend cutting out extracurricular activities, at least not at first, but I would recommend making sensible measurements of the tasks you decide to tackle. 

I understand not wanting to be seen as an idle teammate, but that doesn’t mean you are in charge of saving the day when something goes awry. 

For me, this semester has been more time consuming than the last. I have a stake in a few campus groups, and each of them requires a portion of my schedule. One group was struggling to meet their expectations since most people involved also had a crammed workload. 

I didn’t want to be the problem, so I took on more work. 

I thought that if I took the responsibility, regardless of my packed schedule, I could alleviate some of the internal pressure. In principle, this works; energy is never destroyed, it’s transferred to you. 

My advice is not to be the teammate that never volunteers, but what I would humbly ask you to consider is if your schedule is already full, how much more can you stretch before you’re identical to that bug splat on the windshield?

Do only what you can do.