Students should prioritize schedule for effectiveness

Students should prioritize schedule for effectiveness

Jaiden Herald Co-Editor-in-Chief

Every single day on the iPhone calendar is marked with a gray dot signaling something to do or somewhere to go. Planners are filled to the brim with club meetings, sports games and practices, community service, volunteer hours, family or friend obligations, chores, homework assignments and due dates. To-do lists are miles long and are realistically unmanageable. A student’s normal daily schedule can be scheduled down to the minute: club meeting before school, an eighthour school day, another club meeting after school, sports practice immediately after that meeting and a stack of assignments and homework to complete when finally arriving home. With numerous opportunities for involvement and activities to participate in, many students suffer from overextension.

Everyone is trying to do everything and be everywhere at once. At some point everyone believes they are capable of doing it all and managing the mile long to-do lists. Students fail to realize that not only are they doing themselves a disservice, but, in addition, the clubs, activities, sports and school assignments suffer too. Just like a rubber band stretched too far, at some point, there will be a breaking point. No one can realistically keep up with an overcommitted schedule long term while still maintaining giving one’s best effort to everything they do.

Exhausted, busy, stressed, overwhelmed --- the trademark words of a student spread far too thin. Overextending oneself can lead to burnout, exhaustion and lack of interest. Overcommitment directly ties to negative mental and physical effects like stress and exhaustion. The never-ending grueling schedules become too much to handle and are overwhelming.

In the midst of running back and forth between activities, skipping meals or sleep to compensate for time and grinding out the homework, assignments and test prep for the school week, students miss the detrimental effects that spreading themselves too thin has on themselves as well as how their work and commitments suffer. Overcommitment is a hard lesson to learn and an even harder one to accept, but at the end of the day, no one can do it all. Students: find your passion, find what you are good at, and put your energy there. Rather than trying to do it all, find where you best fit and devote yourself fully to that. Your commitments and involvements deserve your best self and your best work. When you are spread too thin, you are not helping anyone and there is no real gain. Not only are you hurting yourself, but you are failing to give your best to everyone and everything. Pick and choose. Find your priorities. Leave time in your schedule to go to a football game, eat dinner with your family or play catch with your dog. Not everyone needs to do everything. You are not letting anyone but yourself down when you spread yourself too thin. As students, we are pushed to do it all, but that is an unrealistic feat that is unmanageable. We do ourselves and our responsibilities a favor when we choose to prioritize and choose less instead of more.