Balance is one of the hardest things when living on campus. It’s difficult to balance a social life versus studying, and campus involvement versus no involvement at all. As a sophomore, I feel that I have come up with a few ways to split up time and have learned little tips and tricks to be social but also succeed academically. It is something that I seriously struggled with as a new college student, and I have learned the importance of balance. Here are some tips and tricks that I personally use to make sure that I have solid balance in my life:
1. College is all about choices, thus you must have a plan.
I feel like all through life I heard that “college is when you are free,” and “no one is around to tell you what to do,” and although that is true, no one was there reminding me that freedom really equals choices. Do I study for an hour longer? Or get an extra hour of sleep? Do I hang out with friends right now or finish the assignment that I am working on? It can feel overwhelming to have all these choices all at once, thus the key is to have a set-out plan. In my freshman year, after about a month of feeling miserable because all I was doing was homework, I made a rule for myself. Fridays and Saturdays were homework free. The moment that my last class ended Friday I put my homework down and took time for myself, spent time with friends and did not do any schoolwork. Now to a lot of people that seems like a logical and easy rule, but for a nursing student who is a total perfectionist, this was so incredibly hard. This creation of a schedule where I carved out time that was meant to be spent with others and to be social really changed my college life and was the first step towards being a more balanced student and person.
2. Live by the motto “I am paying for my education.”
I know that this may seem counterintuitive to what I said right before this. I do not mean this advice to counteract my previous advice, but rather realize that college is a time when education is everywhere around you and not just in the classroom. Yes, school is important so PLEASE STUDY, but use every moment that you have when on campus to further better yourself as a person and to educate yourself. This doesn’t mean you have to join all these academic clubs (although I do recommend at least one), but rather means that you should use your interactions with others as a chance to get to learn about them, what they believe in, and where they come from. Everyone on this campus has a story and you are paying for an education, so take every moment and opportunity to be further educating yourself about the world and those around you.
3. Find your people.
This is one that really took me until my second semester of sophomore year to get a grasp of. What I mean by that is in your freshman year it’s okay to sign up for 8 clubs, to try them all out, and even be committed to 3 or 4 of them. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but as you keep going in school it naturally gets harder, thus your time continues to get more and more limited. So, my advice: find those one or two clubs that you are 100% committed to and give your life. These should be activities that are hobbies and that bring you joy, but don’t overdo it and over commit yourself or balance will never be achieved.
4. A planner is lifechanging.
I don’t know, I could honestly be crazy, but every Sunday before the week begins, I sit down and plan out my week. I write out when I am in class, the homework that I know is due that week and I make rough plans of the hours that I will be in the library, when I will be hanging with friends and if I scheduled any dinner plans or lunch plans I make sure to write them down as well. This one might be something that seems like over kill for most people, but hear me out. This is a way to visually see every hour of your day. It allows you to think about what hour you hope to go to bed and where in the week you can hit the gym. So even if you are not a huge planner person, looking at your schedule and planning out study time and chill time really allows you to plan out time for everything that you want to do in the week without guessing each day when you wake up if you will have time to see that friend that wanted to get dinner. As someone that really struggled to leave the library and put down the books, this allows me to see what days I have time to study and what days I can be social without feeling guilty about study time.
5. Last but not least, sleep enough.
I know that this may seem like a weird one, but I’m telling you, sleeping the correct amount of time really changes you FOR SURE. In freshman year I would not get enough sleep and during my times that I was hoping to spend time with friends, I found myself right back in bed for my infamous 2 hours naps. Don’t get me wrong, a good long nap once a week is important, but we all have those crazy weeks when time seems like it is against us and there is no way that we will be able to get it all done, and sleep is the answer. When you get enough sleep, you are able to be more productive and spend the time that you had planned to do homework actually doing it rather than staring into space. It makes you more willing to be social and to want to attend club meetings. So more than anything, don’t let your crazy schedule get in the way of solid sleep which is important to your physical and mental health.
These are my 5 tricks to keeping up in college and balance between school, clubs, and a social life. This is something that I personally still struggle with and I know that for sure there are others who struggle with keeping balance, so I would love to share the small tricks that I learned in order to be a more balanced human being.