Finding the Middle Mark

I used to pride myself in being able to work under pressure. I would procrastinate and procrastinate for hours on end, when it’s dying minutes, you’ll now find me running helter shelter, trying to ensure that whatever I’m doing comes out the exact same way, something that was done properly, using the initial allocated hours, would come out. However, there were always signs. It could be the eyebags, drowsiness during the day, or the untardy look of my outfit. There was always something that ratted me out.

Every individual has a personal and work life - two distinct aspects of their lives that they can’t run away from. I’m a student, so for the purpose of this prompt, I’ll be talking about balancing work and school life. As a student, there isn’t a definite schedule. You could have all the time in the world today to do nothing, and tomorrow you’re in the library, struggling to catch up with an assignment due for the next day. Most times, these end up infringing on our personal hours. This is one aspect that can’t be helped actually but there are ways to reduce the workload.

A key thing to consider when one is trying to balance personal life and school life, is prioritizing. You need to know which is most important at a certain time - the YouTube video you’re watching for an exam that’s in a month, or the sleep you’ve been lacking for three days. There was a certain time where I would while away my time throughout the semester, then when it’s exam time, you’d find me in a frenzy, trying to cover loads and loads of school work I should have covered months before. At that time, my hair was always disheveled, my eyes were bloodshot, and every other sign of stress you can fathom were usually written on me. Back then, I couldn’t escape the illness that always racked my body after every exam.

An essential need for every human is sleep, and because I wasn’t the type to fall asleep without actually trying to, I began letting it go. I’d spend so many nights awake, getting as much as 8 hours of sleep in total. Nobody advised me to prioritize my well-being when I began seeing the telltale signs. Reading as at when due, researching assignments as soon as I get a free moment, rather than waiting for deadlines, all these are ways I’ve begun to make time for myself.

The bridge between personal hours and work hours could look so similar, that you’d sometimes delude yourself into thinking that because you’re doing a job that you love, it’s automatically not infringing on your personal time. No! Set boundaries when necessary. Define how much more rest you know you need to get, and be disciplined. Discipline is the most important thing here. Achieve that, and the rest will become easy. I’ve not gotten to this level of distinguishing and prioritizing yet but I look forward to getting there soon.

Thanks for reading.

Image above is mine