The general consensus is that one shouldn’t have too many commitments lest it leads to burnout. But the way the world is set up, you kinda have to juggle a lot of things. For example, the average high school senior has to complete college applications while keeping their grades up in all their classes. Let’s not even get started on the average college student who has to keep up a good GPA, have some extracurriculars and internships, and some even have to have jobs to pay their way through school.
With Finals slowly approaching, I am nearing my own burnout episode so here’s how I keep myself from crashing and burning.
- Break things up: Whenever you have a coding problem, you’re always advised to start with the easiest problem and then work your way from there. That’s what I do with my commitments. I write them all down and see which needs the most attention. Then, designate the time that I would pay attention to the others. When it’s all in your head, you can easily get overwhelmed because it would seem impossible to meet all of them. When you do little chunks, you still feel productive and there’s less work.
- Lots of breaks: you don’t have to be “in the zone” all the time. Watch that Netflix show or sleep or meet up with friends. This will definitely sound like a cliche but there’s more to college than getting ready for a job or graduate school so take advantage.
- Set limitations: This is something I struggle with because I don’t want to let people down. But think of it this way, it’s better to turn down a commitment instead of doing a bad job of it. Also, this is especially true for extracurriculars; think of how what you’re doing will benefit you in the long run. Some extracurricular activities can be for fun and if it is, then you don’t have to take them too seriously. But if it’s something that is connected to your future career, really think about how it fits in so you’re not wasting your time
- Learn to recover from failure: Yes it will happen. When you’re juggling too many balls, one is bound to fall to the ground. It’s important to not be fixated on the ball on the ground and let others fall as well. For me, I dedicate a little bit of time to feeling sorry for myself. Then I keep trucking. Also, as a college student, you have to get real comfortable with failure. It can’t be a crippling thing for you. Get comfortable with recovering from it but don’t get comfortable with failing everything though. We definitely don’t want that.
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