If there is one piece of advice I will always carry from my counselor, it’s that no matter what, I will always be a busy person, but I am able to learn how to “do” busy in a better way.
With the middle of August arriving, school will be also arriving soon. This means schoolwork, jobs, volunteering, clubs, sports, and many more activities that take up our time. For many of us who like to maintain a busy lifestyle, we often don’t realize when we promise ourselves to too many extracurriculars on top of the things we are required to do. And this can be detrimental to our mental and physical health. However, if you are like me, no matter how many times you tell yourself that you are going to slow your life down, you don’t. Face it, you enjoy being busy, and that’s fine, but maybe it’s time to learn how to be busy in a better way.
Trust me, I am the queen of living a busy life because I have been doing it since I was a young child. Throughout my entire life, I managed every extracurricular on top of my school work the best that I could. Being a figure skater, musician (piano, singing, guitar, theory), girl guide, soccer player, theater kid, and a student was not easy to do all at once. Therefore, I learned from a young age how to manage an extremely busy life. These 8 steps will help you, not just organize your life, but keep you mentally sane while you go day-by-day through your busy life.
1. Scheduling
It’s time to hop on that calendar bandwagon and start scheduling all of your tasks and extracurriculars! We don’t have the capability to remember absolutely everything, so when people live overly busy lives, it becomes even harder to remember if we had a meeting, an appointment, club activity, or even just plans with a friend. To help you remember, start using your cell phone’s calendar and put EVERYTHING in it, even if it’s just little reminders to yourself like getting the mail. This will help you stay on track of your busy life.
2. Meal-Prep
Preparing your meals for the week, or even for just a couple of days is so helpful! It saves you so much time in your evenings if you have something that you can just pull out and warm up. Take a not so busy Sunday evening to do this.
3. Learn To Say ‘No’
I get it, you like being busy, but you can’t do more than you even have time for in a day. On top of everything that you are doing for yourself, you can’t also do everything for other people. Learn that it is okay to tell someone “no.” You shouldn’t feel guilty for having to tell someone no. Whether you are saying no because you can’t go out, or you can’t help them with something, don’t feel bad. You can’t do everything, so don’t try.
4. Free Time
Often busy people have so much going on that they forget to take the time to just binge-watch Netflix. It is extremely important for your health if you give yourself time to relax and recuperate. I know you want to do everything, but you won’t be able to do everything for long if you burn yourself out. Take a break, watch the ‘flix, and settle down once in awhile.
5. No Oversleeping
Don’t get me wrong, sleep is excellent for you. Many doctors even say that it is good to take a day to get 15 hours of sleep to rejuvenate; however, this isn’t supposed to happen every day. If you have a busy lifestyle, and you want to maintain it, it is time to get to bed in good time and get up in the morning to get shit done. Say goodbye to that 3 AM – 12 PM habit.
6. Appreciate Yourself
When people live an overly busy lifestyle, it is easy to get burned out and feel discouraged with ourselves. We will often find ourselves breaking down about everything we have to do and feeling like we will never get it done. And this makes it incredibly discouraging for us to continue accomplishing all that we want. Remember to appreciate yourself and all that you do. Notice all of your accomplishments and be proud of your hard work.
7. Go Off The Grid
Sometimes the constant buzzing from our cell phones and other devices telling us we have notifications is extremely stressful, especially to those of us who live busy lives. Personally for me, when I am in the midst of a lot of work, the notifications from all of my social media pushes me over the edge to a point where I feel anxious and panicked. Therefore, don’t be afraid to take a few hours, a day or two to go off the grid. Turn your phone on airplane mode, silent mode, or just off to let yourself not be bothered by the world of social media and technology.
8. Just Do It
Are you ever appreciating your down time and then suddenly something pops up that you need to do? Maybe you remembered that you have laundry, maybe it’s an email. No matter what it is, just do it. The worst thing you can do for yourself as a busy person is letting things pile up because you don’t think you have time to do it (check my bedroom for reference). Once you leave things for too long, there is suddenly a huge list of tasks you need to complete and people you need to respond to, so just do it right away and then it’s over with.
Living a busy life is not easy to do, but it can definitely make you feel incredibly accomplished and proud of yourself. Just make sure that you take the time that you need so that you don’t overwork yourself to the point of breaking down mentally and physically. If you want to live this type of lifestyle, you can do it, but you have to take care of yourself in the process.
Featured image via Tana Mongeau.
