With the start of the new school year comes the promise of a fresh start. Expectations and grades start out high. Plans are left open and the average student stress level is low. But as classes move past syllabus week, planners that started empty at the beginning of the week are filled up by the following Monday.
Before August has ended, club sign up days come to campus. Students are drawn to the various booths, imagining the opportunities they’ll have with each organization. Students scrawl their emails onto lists, requesting more information about future meetings and activities. Some students walk the concourse knowing which booths to stop at. Others walk from booth to booth, signing up to try almost everything. Before the end of the day, some students will have overscheduled themselves, taking on more than their academic load and schedule can handle.
Though students should want to get involved in the organizations Auburn has to offer, they should take into account their course load and schedule before spreading themselves too thin. Finding the balance between school and extra-curricular activities will prevent students from feeling overwhelmed every time they receive an email from an organization.
I’ve struggled with this problem since I came to Auburn. When I was a freshman, I signed up for more activities than I realized I would have time to attend. I tried accommodating my schedule to fit other organizations’ events in, sacrificing time that I could have used for sleep or to take a mental break. It took me a while to learn how to find the balance between work and school.
Learn to say “no” every once in a while. Many students have “fear of missing out” or “FOMO” at the beginning of the year, wanting to be a part of everything. This is why they overschedule themselves, running around campus from event to event. Not wanting to waste time waiting to try out a few organizations, some students sign up for everything and try to accommodate their schedules to fit all of the extra events. But by selecting a few organizations to try out in the beginning, they learn to balance their schedule and can add more activities later on.
Prioritizing also helps alleviate stress and overbooking your schedule. By selecting a small group of organizations that you are committed to—the ones that you would hate to give up—and removing the ones you can go without, balance will be restored to your schedule.
Rather than weigh yourself down with a heavy workload of extra activities and assignments, find a small number of organizations to get involved with. It’s better to dedicate more time and effort into a few things than five minutes to several.
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