As a second semester senior, I have a TON on my plate. On top of the massive fear of graduating and having to leave this place in just a few months, I have a full courseload, on-campus involvements, 2 jobs work, and I’m studying for my LSAT. And especially since this is my last semester, I am trying my best to keep up with friends and setting aside time to have fun before I graduate. Because of all of things on my “to do” list, I decided to try out a strict schedule in order to stay on top of everything. For what it’s worth, these strict, early wakeup schedules seem to be all the rage on social media. I mean, people swear by them. So, I decided to try it out.
Spoiler Alert: This experiement did not last very long. For the first few weeks of the semester, I tried to get up at around 7 every morning. It was the first step in this “productive schedule”, yet I was already having problems. As a college student with a drastically different schedule every day, getting up at the same time is more difficult than one would think. Some nights I am up till 2 A.M. doing homework and have an 8 A.M. class the next day, and some days I go to bed at 9 P.M. and don’t have class until 11 A.M So if I’m trying to get a solid 7-8 hours of sleep every day, a strict wakeup schedule just doesn’t work. I also tried to abide by a more regular workout schedule as part of this, but that also presented itself with problems. Again, with a different schedule every day, it’s hard to get a workout in at the same time. I do try my best to at least get some movement in each day, but some days there is simply stuff gets in the way.
Another attempt at this schedule included planning out my study time. Before the week started, I would plan out what work I was going to get done and when. This did work for a little bit, but as the semester got busier and assigments began to pile up, it was harder to stick to these preplanned study blocks. Some days, I was feeling really productive in the morning, while other days all I wanted to do was sleep in and save my work for the evening.
All of this planning truly left me feeling even more unproductive than before. The stress of sticking to a rigid schedule took over- I was more worried about what I had scheduled next than what my body was telling me. Because every day looked different for me, my body felt different at different points of the day. Some mornings I was very tired waking up at 7 A.M., while other days I felt great. Some days I didn’t want to eat lunch at 1 P.M., and other days I was starving by 11 A.M. I could go on, but my point is that listening to your body is more productive than abiding by a strict daily schedule. The reality is (at least for college students), that this type of scheduling doesn’t always work. Instead, I’ve found that I’m much for productive when I have a healthy balance of planning and flexibility. Now, I create a rough outline for each day but alot time for changes based on how I’m feeling. This has been a much more productive method, and has helped me stay sane and organized in the madness that is my final semester.