Tip Tuesday: Just because you CAN do it…doesn’t mean you should!

   

  As students, we are expected to use our superpower of multitasking and take on as much as we can; such as, making A’s in classes, being highly involved on campus, maintaining a social life, interning, building up our resumes, and possibly even showing up to work every day. Are these tasks difficult to juggle? Is Netflix our kryptonite? Yes! Should we take on more just because we can handle it? NO! Although not everyone takes on ‘too much’ in college, those of us who do seem to feel the need to add more on to the load that we already have. According to the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment, 84% of college students feel overwhelmed by the course load they have, 47% have overwhelming anxiety, and 25% fall into depression to the point where they cannot function. Yeah, we are here to succeed and better our futures; however, becoming psychologically unstable is not the way to achieve it. The following tips may help the overachievers of the world take a breath or two.  

      

      1)      Lower your course hours.

I know that it is more productive to take 18 hours than 14; however, if you are taking too many hours and failing your Accounting 301 class you aren’t being very productive are you? Try taking fewer hours in order to build up your GPA instead of lowering it. Who cares if you graduated in three years if you have a 2.0/4.0 GPA…not employers! 

      2)      Take courses that are not related together.

So yeah I know that if your major is a science then your classes will all involve science, but this is the moment when you need to love and appreciate your college’s gen eds! Instead of taking chemistry, biology, physics, and math for life sciences in the same semester, try to throw in an English class or a social science. You will have to take them eventually anyways.

      3)      Try to plan your classes on MWF or just TR.

This way you will have days when you can take a breath and catch up or get yourself together. Days off tend to break up the busy week and make it seem to go by faster…and you’re finishing your homework, more efficiently.  

      4)      Get off of campus for an hour or two.

If you’re stressed out on campus...just leave. There’s no stress about going to walk around the mall or out to eat for a few hours. Sometimes just getting away from the madness is the best thing to do in order to avoid a meltdown.

I know that as college students we are expected to multitask (which is scientifically proven impossible), but sometimes juggling too many balls of fire could get us burned. Although I have faith that you can do whatever you set your mind to, you can save being superman or wonder woman for later!