The Art of Staying Sane

The Art of Staying Sane

Every Sunday night I sit anxiously in bed making plans for the upcoming week. I write down everything I have to do that week, and then assign it a day, and sometimes even an exact time. In a way, this ritual of over planning my week calms me down, and helps me sleep, but Monday morning I wake up with a plan that has absolutely no basis in reality, and I freak out. I think that there’s no possible way that I’ll be able to finish my assignments by the day they’re due. But, in the end, I can, and do, finish my homework. What truly determines my ability to complete projects comfortably is all a matter of how I organize my tasks.

There is probably an infinite number of ways to structure a to-do list. Some people might prefer one way over another, and some might even function better without a list at all. But I definitely do better when I have a list of some sort to keep things on track.

I used to make to-do lists that were organized by what I would do each day of the week. But, although it seemed logical to me at the time, it didn’t work. In fact, I’d say that it had the opposite effect of what I wanted it to have. When making these daily to-do lists, I’d overestimate what I was capable of doing in one day, and assign myself too many tasks. This actually stressed me out more, even though the entire point of the to-do list was to ease the stress.

After realizing this wasn’t working, I decided I needed a new approach. I had to go through a number of different ways of organizing tasks before I arrived at one that worked well for me. But, before I could get to this more ideal style of scheduling, I had to figure out what my number one problem was.

My primary issue was the fact that I never know how long a given project is going to take. An assignment that seems simple can end up taking a whole day. At the same time, a project that seems like it’s going to take a whole day can end up taking only 30 minutes. So, even if I think I’ve scheduled my projects in a logical manner, I might have seriously misjudged the time that each project will take. As a way to combat this unknown, and stay sane when organizing my schedule, I assume that all projects are going to take twice as long as I think they will. When I assume that all my projects are going to take longer than I think they will, I’m usually a lot less stressed.

Plus, if some assignments end up taking less time than I thought they would, then I have some extra time to use as I please.

With the thought in mind that all my projects with likely take longer than I think they will, and the knowledge that over-planning doesn’t work for me, now I always have a Word document open on my computer that I call my “Continuing To-Do List.” In this document, I have categories for each class that I’m taking, and a category that I title “Other.” Whenever I have assignment to do for a class, or something else to do that’s not college related, I put it under the appropriate category. Instead of making a new to-do list every week, or day, I can just delete things on my Word document, and add things when I have a new task. My Continuing To-Do List keeps my tasks well organized, and makes it easier for me to keep my priorities in check.

Scheduling is one of my least favorite parts of college. It’s stressful, time-consuming, and it gets in the way of actually doing college assignments. Even though scheduling is sometimes hard to deal with, I continue to structure my weeks, and keep a to-do list to stay sane and keep my life in order. I feel less stressed overall when I know what needs to be done, and when it needs to be done by. There isn’t really much of a revelation involved with scheduling; it’s quite simply something that just needs to be done. In order to be able to get other things done efficiently.

To-Do:

Make to-do list

Lydian Shipp

Webzine Team Member