Balance is a challenge everyone faces.From diet, to lifestyle, to friendship, finding a balance in life is very hard. In college, there are so many things we want to do, sleep, eat, socialize, study, engage in activities,and so many others and it feels like we can never find the time to do it all. Personally, I have always struggled with putting the right amount of commitments on my plate, and I seemingly always have too much. Having too much on my plate played a huge role on my mental health, and I began to feel uninterested in the things I was doing. However, I made it a goal this year to have more balance on my plate and not take too much more than I can handle. I found this helped reignite a passion in the things I do now. Here are some things that helped me find some balance in my day to day life.
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Schedule
For me, my planner and google calendar are my right hand woman. I began to color code what I did throughout the week, and this lets me see if my weeks are overwhelmed with work, or if I am not spending enough time with friends or finding time for me to relax. I also really like that it allows me to think ahead so I can plan when I should do assignments or extracurriculars. By planning out my days it helped visualize when I have breaks or if my day is blocked up, that I probably should find time for a break.
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Journal
I discovered bullet journaling in college and it has become my life savior. It’s one place for me to have a schedule, a to do list, mood tracker, habit tracker, reminders and everything else I need. I love bullet journaling because it lets me personalize it to whatever I need it to be that day. Sometimes I need to journal and sometimes I need to make lists, or other times I just need to do a brain dump or write down some ideas, and I can do all of that while making the spreads look nice.
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Meditate
Meditating daily, or even whenever I found time to allow me to declutter my mind. There are meditations for just about everything and it reminds me that I have control over what is happening now and gets rid of any clutter or anxiety in my mind.
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Be reasonable
This is something I still struggle with – but making reasonable goals for the day or the week are really important. Sometimes a lot of having too much on our plate comes from thinking we are invincible and that we do not need a break. While I know I should never stop pursuing my goals, I have realized that I am not capable of doing everything and that I should be reasonable with myself about what is possible. Making reasonable, prioritized to do lists really helped me understand how to get the right amount of responsibility on my plate.