I guess to start off, I've been super stressed lately. I've been feeling overwhelmed with schoolwork and chores. Even when I have some down time to relax to practice a hobby I still have this sense of being overwhelmed. The thoughts of everything I need or want to do are always on the back of my mind so I feel like I can only really distract myself from them, but that I can't relax fully. I've also been stressed about finances. I'm working about half the hours I usually do this semester, which on the one hand is probably a good thing because I don't know how I would handle the extra hours with how stressed I've been, but at the same time less hours means less pay. I still have expenses to pay though, and I really don't want to rely on my parents so much for money.
So toady is the first day of November, and I like to think of each month as an opportunity for a fresh start. So I'm going to try to clear all the clutter of my to dos by picking a couple goals to focus on for this month, and probably into December since I have only 5 more weeks of Fall term.
Goals:
I think my biggest obstacle to achieving these is becoming too stressed, because when I become stressed I become less organized and I start to forget things until the last minute. Stress also affects my ability to focus and my time management. Some of the stress I definitely cause myself. There's always been so many things I've wanted to try or do, but when I was younger it didn't stress me because none of it was really urgent and I felt like I had so much time to get around to everything one day. Now, I have a lot of responsibility, and some of it is urgent at times. I don't feel like I have time to do everything I want to do now, so even fun stuff sometimes becomes stressful because I start to worry about what I might be missing out on, or if I'll regret my choices later because I'll miss something I really wanted to do. Often times, I'll spend a bit of time doing one thing, then I'll drop it to move on to something else, sort of with the mentality of at least I got to try a greater variety of things, even if I didn't finish them. I think the two things I need to work on is staying focused on one thing at a time, and also staying committed to the things I start on. It's going to be difficult for me, but for now I'm starting with my three goals.
I'm going to set aside 1 hour each night for studying. Because of my schedule, I typically work on homework throughout the day, so this isn't me trying to finish all my homework in one hour. The purpose of this session is:
Any left over time will be more time to dedicate to focus on homework.
For keeping my bedroom clean and organized, I've already started a habit of cleaning up my room and vacuuming every weekend, which has been very good. I'm going to add 5 minutes every evening to do smaller tidying, so that it's not as much of a chore on the weekends.
For my last goal, I'm going to set aside 3 breaks for myself throughout the day. First, I'm going to set aside 15 minutes in the morning to take a break to breathe and try to relax before classes and work. I'm also going to set aside 20 minutes in the afternoon during my lunch to just sit and eat, instead of eating while studying like I normally do. Lastly, I'm going to set aside 15 minutes before I shower to turn off and charge my phone and laptop, and to put away all my school and work things for the next day. I'm hoping this will help me to have a definite end of day so I can start to relax before going to bed.
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