How To Be Good at Being Busy

Midterms, homework, projects, clubs, and social life - they can all keep you super busy! As much as we love chilling in bed and not leaving the comfort of our rooms for anything, responsibility is a basic aspect of life, especially if you’re a college student! Because of this we might be tempted to only participate in the bare minimum of college life, which is homework, exams, and social life. Over the last month, I went out of my way to do the opposite of this - I went out of my way to stay as busy as humanly possible. 

I say “humanly” because I’m not a robot - I still need to eat, sleep, and have some chill time by myself. I’ve been going out of my way to make academic and career appointments for myself and scoping out cool events happening on campus. I’ve also been undertaking projects for the on-campus clubs and organizations that I’m currently part of. Another super productive and experiential way I’ve been keeping myself busy is through something super awesome that happened to me just last week: I became Editor in Chief of Odyssey at Stony Brook University! As you can imagine, this involves a ton of professional planning and organization, as well as recruitment! 

I recently saw a Facebook post targeted towards college students that implies that we cannot possibly balance all the aspects of college life that I previously mentioned all while having enough time to get well-deserved 8 hours of sleep. I’m here to say that this is actually possible! 

First of all let me just say that I am not a fan of anything that explicitly or implicitly states that millennials are “lazy”, “incapable” or anything along those lines so, despite the growing majority, I did not ‘Like’ the post or that page and I was determined to get to writing about my own personal experiences with staying busy and living a balanced college life. 

As I told the Managing Editor at Odyssey, there’s a difference between being busy and being good at being busy. Many students, unfortunately, struggle with the latter. It’s not our fault if we stumble a little with that process (and maybe actually trip once or twice) but it is our fault if we don’t do anything about our screw ups. Without further ado, here are my tips for being good at being busy: 

1. Find things to keep yourself busy. 

The first step to being good at being busy is finding things to keep yourself busy! I know some people who only concern themselves with class, homework (if they choose to do homework) and exams (if they choose to study for exams). You have less to worry about so you give yourself more leeway to mess around and be lazy. I usually advise people to find other things to occupy themselves. Join a fitness class at the gym and make it your duty to attend weekly. Join a club or organization on campus that will keep you engaged! These are simple ways you can busy yourself if you’re one of those people who are basically married to Netflix. 

2. Keep a schedule and update it weekly. 

Every Sunday I update my schedule for the week to include all the new appointments, meetings, events, and things I have going on. I usually start by adding my classes first followed by fitness classes then I include appointments and meetings and such. Afterward, I like to allot for study time and homework time. A schedule is helpful because it allows you to keep track of everything that needs to get done without any hesitations. It also provides a visual way for you to gauge your availability on any given day and time. You never want to double book yourself or schedule an appointment for a time you think you’re free only to find out that you have another commitment at that time. This wastes your time and the time of the person you were supposed to meet. The default calendar app on your laptop is great for creating weekly schedules that you can stick to! Hint: this will only work if you’re diligent about actually updating it every week! 

3. When updating your schedule, consider all aspects of your life. 

Don’t just include class and appointments for the week; make sure your schedule reflects the time you allow for workout sessions (if you go to the gym a lot), study time, and homework time. If you have errands to run make sure you include those errands. Surely, you have more than just homework and exams to worry about so make sure you can express that in your schedule! 

When I want to meet with friends to go to an event I mark that down in my schedule so that I’m aware that I have a commitment at a certain day and time. I realize that friends aren’t as important as studying and work but if you want to have a little downtime make sure you can allow time for such by considering everything you’re supposed to do. 

4. Be diligent about sticking to your schedule. 

Don’t just add things to your schedule without a plan to actually do those things! You’re reading this to learn how to be good at being a busy person so I assume you’re already expressing your willingness to give into your diligence. By continuously adhering to your schedule you’re building good habits and a good work ethic. Staying organized and following through on commitments will become easier and easier. Keep in mind that good habits can be difficult to form but if you keep at them you’ll have no problem staying on top of a busy schedule. 

5. Have a little patience! 

You certainly won’t get good at being busy overnight! Like I said, good habits can be difficult to form but easy to break. It might take a good two weeks of practice in order for you to get the hang of your schedule and all the things you’re taking on but if you persevere, this will become a  familiar thing. 

6. Know your limit. 

I find that staying involved in a variety of things definitely helps you get your foot in the door by keeping you active within your campus community and it forces you to stay on top of all your plans, however, you don’t want to bite off more than you can chew! We all have different limits to the amount of commitments we can handle and it’s your responsibility to know yours. Aside from classes other commitments I have are: Pink Gloves Boxing, I’m a teaching assistant, Campus-Community Emergency Response Team, Contributing Author at Her Campus (my school’s chapter), Editor in Chief at Odyssey (my school’s branch), Marketing & PR for Camp Kesem, Zumba Toning, and, of course, my blog! This is pretty much as busy as I’d like to get. Some people might think this is nothing and some people might think I’m insane! You can’t be good at being busy if you can’t efficiently manage the things that keep you busy! 

7. Make room for a little fun!  

Make sure you can treat yourself for all your hard work! If there’s something going on on campus that you think would be fun to attend then definitely go for it! You’ve earned it, after all. This is a good way to just relax and a good way to spend your down time (I promise you will have some amount of down time if you orient your obligations properly!) I found that people who are less organized have less time to do something enjoyable. Sometimes, they’ll make plans only to cancel at the last minute because they suddenly realized that they have a test to study for or homework to finish. Make sure you can enjoy yourself when you want to!