The most important thing, is that you need to know that you are not alone. I personally am someone who doesn’t say no to anything, and while I am writing this I am thinking about all the other things I could be doing too.

We’re in college, we’re busy. That’s normal, but the fact of how we work is that we need to be busy all the time. I am someone who is always saying yes, to one job offer after another. I can’t seem to find a time to just sit and reflect or watch tv. I am always trying to do something productive. Take in for example, the other night I went to coffee with a friend but I ended up working on some things for school the entire time. And when I stopped working to talk or do something else, all I could think about was how I should still be working. Well this is when I realized I was too busy to sit and talk for an hour.

It got me thinking that I am not the only person like this and that others probably struggle with it too. So here is my advice to you that I even need to listen too:

Take something out of the equation.

Find something that isn’t the main focus in your life at this moment. Remove it for the next day or two, find a way to let it be at rest for the next 24 hours. It may be scary but trust me you need a break from something.

Take some time for yourself.

When you get so busy you tend to forget about how you truly feel, or the signs your body is telling you. Take a nap, a walk, sit down and have coffee with friends, read a book. Do something that will give you a break and help you refuel your body.

Take some time to talk to someone.

I can’t express how hard it is to be so busy and to do it alone. I personally keep it all bottled up inside and within the last week that has been extremely crazy it has made me overwhelmed. I took some time out of my day just to talk to someone about the fact that I feel overwhelmed and that I needed a break. Because that person will now check in and make sure that I am giving myself the time that I need and that I don’t have too much on my plate. I have people who say “I can help with that” because I thought I had to do it alone. Tell someone that you feel overwhelmed because they can find some way to help.

Don’t stress yourself out to the point of burning out, because at this moment in your life that is probably the last thing that you want. Take something out, take time for yourself, and talk to someone is the best advice I can give from being in your shoes. It’s not easy to say no, not at all. But you need to at some point and that is today.