Last Friday marked the seventh consecutive day I had not visited the gym. As I struggled to zip my jeans, I noticed that, for once, laziness or lack of desire was not the reason I haven’t been sweating over a treadmill.
It’s my life.
Working out isn’t the only thing that has taken the backseat: Laundry and eating are also becoming activities that can wait.
Time restrictions are something with which we all have to deal. In fact, how many of you are trying to squeeze another hour out of the day for homework?
Well, stop. According to the Academic Skill Program at the University of Canberra, Australia, students must take time to decompress because we have demanding lives.
Garry Collins, head of the program, said, “Your brain (and body) will work better if you take some time off, so make sure you give yourself sufficient time for relaxation.”
UC offers a Web site, www.canberra.edu.au/studyskills, for tips on time management.
Sure, it’s all well and good to say that students need to take time off for relaxation-but who really can afford it?
We’re all familiar with that classic line, “I just don’t have time.” The longer I’m in school, the more I sense it was coined for college students. In our world filled with class, work and homework, is there time to have a life?
As I mentally list all the things that I need to get done, in what order to do them and how long they are going to take, I realize my life has become a nonstop to-do list.
I’ve become so busy that I don’t even have time to relax, much less go do something fun or productive-and everyone seems to express the same frustrations.
When did wanting to finish one’s homework become equitable to not even being able to watch 30 minutes of TV?
Deberah Hair, office manager of the Associated Students of the University of Utah Tutoring Center, reports that “most of the students we see are on the run; students who need a tutor NOW because they have a test in three hours or a paper due first thing in the morning,” which is especially true during midterms and finals.
The fact is that students need to plan ahead so they aren’t running to the Tutoring Center the day before their midterm-and they need to schedule in relaxation time, as well.
We’re all guilty of trying to cram too much into too little time. The amount of moment-to-moment planning has become so ridiculous that I’ve even started to break my day into units of time, like Hugh Grant’s character in “About A Boy.”
Showering, one unit; class and travel time, four units; e-mail correspondence, two units…
Students need to realize that by procrastinating and then cramming so much into our days, we’re not just racing to see whether we can finish term papers or get to work on time-we’re racing toward bad mental health.
So give your self a couple of units to decompress-and get back on that treadmill.