I know the light in your eye that twinkles under the Activity Fair tent, your mind racing with all the opportunities before you, waiting to be seized: newspaper, gymnastics team, student government, professional fraternities, and hundreds more. College is a time for exploration; it’s about finding the things you love and pursuing them. But what happens when you love too many things? Overcommitment.
It doesn’t even hit you until you’re three months into the schoolyear, planning a social gathering, writing a Her Campus article, reviewing a film festival, working, and desperately trying to keep your Genetics grade afloat that your plate is not only full, but your Totino’s® Pizza Rolls are actually spilling onto the floor.
In high school, our guidance counselors spread the urban legend of time management, telling us we’d discover it in college if we hadn’t already—or else. Yet here I am forgetting about the meeting tonight because there were three meetings yesterday and I was too consumed by extracurricular activities to simply scribble down its time and place into my calendar.
As a veteran overcommitter, my best advice to you is to shave down your schedule. Personally, in the past I’ve lost hours of sleep, missed out on social aspects of life, and had an unfortunate number of stress-induced breakdowns, because I, frankly, was putting too much pressure on myself mentally and physically.
If you are currently dedicated to six activities with your head barely above water, consider cutting out one or two. And I know, I know—the only reason you’ve continued with so many activities thus far is because you enjoy them all. But even if you enjoy them all, if your body can’t handle it, how can you? Self-care must be your number one priority, and if that means you have to declutter and reorganize pieces of your routine, by all means, do it.
If you practice handling a few interests at a time, eventually you’ll be able to juggle all of the ones you truly want and need. You are here to learn and experience, so learn how to manage your time and hobbies before undertaking them all at once.