Balance is everything and it is as important to come up with a balanced schedule for a healthy life as it is eating a balanced diet for a healthy body.
by Rebekah Baughman, Emporia State University
In my personal college journey, balance has always been the hardest thing for me to achieve. With school, family, friends, extracurriculars, work, and more, there seems to be no possible way to get everything to fit in a 24 hour period – or even in a week.
If you wait until the weekend to go out with friends you may be left catching up when it comes Monday morning. But going out on school nights risks not getting your day to day work and study done. Maybe you work after class and are left up late doing work, leaving no time to take a breather.
Balance is everything and it is as important to come up with a balanced schedule for a healthy life as it is eating a balanced diet for a healthy body.
Step 1: Get a week schedule and put in all of your school obligations.
Put in all of your class times, office hours, and tutoring sessions that are a regular part of your schedule. If you have tests coming up make sure to allot extra study time for those.
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Step 2: If you are a working student, include your work hours.
Usually students schedule their work hours around classes anyways so these first two steps you may have already planned out.
Step 3: Prioritize extras.
If you are now left with scheduling out social time, extracurriculars, or anything additional, make a list of what comes first. For me, many of my extracurriculars are linked with my membership in my Honors college or linked with scholarships.
Therefore those come first. Then I will etch out time for friends and family in between the rest. This usually means that my time with friends ends up on the weekends, which is the best time for most of us to get together.
Step 4: Revise.
Is the schedule packed full? Are there no blank spaces left? Go back and look to make sure that you included some time for yourself – and no I don’t mean just when you are sleeping. It is important for you to have time to take care of yourself.
This means making sure that you make time for eating meals, exercising, taking showers (everyone appreciates it), and anything else that allows you the ability to relax and let your mind take a break. Maybe you love art so make sure you give yourself time to go to a local art gallery, paint, or draw.
Whatever it is that you enjoy outside of school and work, make those things a priority. Your mental health will thank you for it.
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Step 5: Make copies of this schedule and put it in places where you can refer to it.
For me this includes putting it in the back covers of my school binders as well as on the wall by my desk. This way I can refer back and make changes when necessary. Maybe I got done studying early and so I can mark that off and take some time to go and hang out with friends. This schedule is not set in stone so don’t be afraid to make changes when necessary.
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I highly advise getting a planner (some schools even hand them out at the beginning of the fall semester), but if you do not have one yet or do not know where to start, I have attached a blank weekly schedule you can use to start. You can fill in the time slots and then begin to plan out how you will spend that time each day of the week. Schedules can be overwhelming so if you feel yourself getting discouraged step back and give yourself some time. Then when you are able, return to it and make sure to follow each step one at a time. You can do this!