By: Bridget Turro
Since I can remember, I have always thrived off of a routine. Whether that routine is chaotic or changes weekly, I always have some sort of structure to follow. I am also an anxious person that is constantly waiting for what is ahead, so Sundays have never been my favorite day. I always feel like I should be at home doing work all day while feeling anxious and worried about what will happen in the week ahead. I have done this most of my life because I was on a schedule that kept me in school all days of the week and all hours of the day. In college, it became worse because of the amount of free time that I had. I didn’t know how to properly schedule it. I was stressed about enjoying my Sundays at first and then hid in my room and did work for the rest of the day.
Sundays were originally meant for a day of rest, but in our culture, it is somewhat ingrained in us that we take off Friday nights and Saturdays so that on Sunday we can sit down and do work. That is how I operated most of my life until the Sunday Scaries really got me freshman year. With all the new free time I was not good at planning time management and saved everything for Sunday. This would give me stress throughout the week and during the weekend, knowing that I was saving my homework and studying all for Sunday. My peers at the time had the same philosophy as me so it wasn’t helping me make a change.
Personally, the pandemic helped me a lot with getting over my fear of the Sunday Scaries. When all of society is in a routine, and that routine is stopped, it will shift the culture. I noticed I had so much more free time than I ever did. Sitting in my childhood bedroom all day was boring for me and I craved having a normal routine. It wasn’t until after I moved back on campus about a year later that I started really thinking to myself about changing my routine so I don’t fall back to where I was a year prior. I realized I needed to create a schedule for myself that wasn’t too overwhelming or put too much stuff on one day. When I would leave all my work for one day, I would procrastinate for as long as I could so I didn’t have to think about it even though it would always be in the back of my head.
I had to realize that what used to work for me years ago was not working for me in college and I needed to make that change myself. It wasn’t easy changing habits that I have had my whole life. It was definitely difficult for me to get used to working a little bit each day and not just spending one day doing everything which would, in turn, stress me out. It is something that I still struggle with and I have difficulty retaining the same schedule, but I know that this is what works best for me to succeed. As someone with ADHD, it is hard to keep a schedule. However, once I changed it and I became used to my new one. You find out you can do a lot more than you think, and setting a schedule is the key to being organized and having a stable life.