It’s About Time

All of us students know how valuable time is while here at Graceland. If time was a tangible good, I think we’d all end up spending 85 percent of our money on it – and the rest on gas and junk food from Kum & Go, of course. But time is certainly something none of us have enough of. Amongst the plethora of classes we all take (that come with homework, studying and projects), the clubs and sports we’re involved in, IMs, HoCo and leadership positions, Student Life activities, jobs, laundry, time spent with friends and significant others (if we’re part of the lucky ones), and on top of all that somehow finding time to eat and sleep… it’s safe to say that most of us are insanely busy. But I think we all love what we do. 

And we wouldn’t be so involved if we didn’t feel like it was worth it, or that we were benefitting from it all in some way. So, while it’s crucial to make sure we’re not overdoing ourselves and that we know our limits and set our boundaries, I think we can agree it’s good to stay busy. We’re in college, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for us. Some of us may end up super-duper senioring, and some of us may be out of here in less than four years, but once we’re done being students, we’re done being students (unless you’re Superman himself, Will King – then you can come back at, well, a much later time in life). So we all get busy and feel overwhelmed, but I don’t think the answer is to just rid ourselves of all our activities and involvements. Graceland is great about providing opportunities for us as students to lead and be involved and make a difference on campus, in our own lives, and in the world. So why shouldn’t we take advantage of that? The issue then becomes making sure we maintain our sanity amongst our crazy involvement. Well how do we do that, you might ask? It all comes down to prioritizing, balancing and scheduling.

Prioritizing

With all we have going on, and the limited time we have to do it all, it’s important to prioritize. What is it that’s most important to do with the time I have? I think the first thing we have to make sure of, is that class is a main priority. When it’s class time, go to class. Save rewatching season 3 of Gossip Girl for another time. You also have to make sure your health is a huge priority. You have to take care of yourself. Get to bed at a decent time. Sleep is a huge factor that plays into your performance in the classroom, your performance on the field, your attitude and your health. Make sure you’re eating. Good food. Try to get three meals a day, even if that means waiting in the ridiculously long line for a Swarm Inn breakfast meal exchange. And if you’re sick, don’t force yourself to go to class or your club meeting or IM game. Rest up and you’ll be glad you did in the long run. And then, make it a priority to do something you enjoy everyday. Go to class, get your work done, but take time for yourself. Go hang with your buddies, read a good book, sprawl out in your bed and watch some quality Netflix, or whatever it is you enjoy. But make it a priority to treat yourself and uplift your spirits. It’ll make doing all that work a lot easier. If you prioritize and decide what’s important, you won’t waste time. You’ll get stuff done. And if you take care of yourself, you’ll be more capable of doing things with the time you have. Time is valuable, and so are you.

Balancing

Balancing is a huge aspect to managing time. You have to balance out the things you’re doing and it’s important to distribute out your time. It helps keep you sane. Make sure to have time for school, for work and for play. Only you can decide how to best balance it out, though.

Scheduling

With so little time, and so much to do, we don’t want to be wasting any time. Scheduling can be a lifesaver. If you can schedule out your days, and stick to it, your days become a lot more efficient and then you have time to do what you want to do. Of course, along with scheduling comes a side of discipline, because you have to be the one to hold yourself accountable for sticking to the schedule. You also have to be motivated and persuade yourself into getting the work done that you need to get done. Just get it done and over with, and then you won’t have to continue to stress and can spend more time in leisure. But if you map out your days, and know when you have to be where and what you have to be doing, you can find a lot of time in between to get stuff done.  Schedules can be a huge helping hand, you just have to stay disciplined and motivated.

We all enjoy being involved, and there’s so much we all get involved with on campus. It’s all good stuff, we just always find ourselves praying for more time. Sadly, no matter how many prayers we say or petitions we sign, I don’t think the days are going to get any longer. But we can take some steps to better manage and use our time. Prioritize, balance and schedule, and your world will be a lot better.

-Matt Bear, Tiona House