Practice, homework, studying, meetings, social life, sleep, working out, family time. When I was in high school, this is what my daily life looked like.
We are given 24 hours in a day, and it is up to us how we choose to spend them. Of course, there are some things we need to do, like go to class and sleep, but outside of those hours, we have the freedom to customize our schedule. Some of us may have much more freedom than others, and some of us may only be able to customize an hour of our schedule.
Having a planner stocked full of plans and events and things to do is glorified, and the busy-bee lifestyle is placed on a pedestal. In our culture, being busy has become synonymous with being successful.
News flash: It's OK to slow down.
Don't get me wrong, there is an enthralling rush of adrenaline that accompanies having a busy day, and it can encourage motivation and progress like nothing else can. Having a booked planner every single day may seem like a good thing, but you will eventually crash and burn if you don't take a break. The busier you get, the more likely you are to forget to do certain things, and the more likely you are to neglect certain parts of your life, whether it be your social life, emotional well-being, health, or even your academic life. That doesn't mean that everyone who is busy is doing themselves a disservice, it just means that balance is often overlooked and pushed aside when it should be prioritized.
It may feel like you are falling behind and setting yourself up for failure if you slow down, but trust me, you will thank yourself later if you stay home on a Friday night or get an extra hour of sleep instead of getting coffee with your friends. It is so important to take care of ourselves and listen to our mind and body, especially when it comes to the burdens of over-scheduling or feeling like there are not enough hours in the day. When you are trying to please everyone around you, remember that you have to please yourself, too.
If you analyze what is consuming your schedule and reprioritize how you spend your time, you may find that slowing down helps you so much more than staying busy ever did. If you are always thinking about what you have to do next, you are forgoing fulfilling the potential you had for the moment you are currently in. If we get too busy and forget to slow down, we tend to get less out of the many tasks we are trying to complete.
Slowing down does not mean giving up, failing, falling behind, or losing; it means learning to prioritize your well-being instead of your schedule.
Grab a cup of coffee, forget about everything you have to do, do something you love, and remember to slow down every once in a while.
"Once she stopped rushing through life, she was amazed how much more life she had time for." -unknown
