When you’re trying to maintain full-time status at school while trying to balance your life, it’s not a bad thing to pull back to maintain mental health. Everyone’s situation is different, and it doesn’t mean you are less than other students if your time is at a premium before class even starts.
Recently, I decided to try full-time classes. Shortly after registering, I lost my income, my home, and moved across the country to essentially start over. I thought I was going to be fine in terms of maintaining my education. I was grossly mistaken.
Not because I couldn’t hack being a full-time student while working a full-time job, though. It was all of the other sidequests I had to complete in order to get out of my house and travel 2200 miles.
Essentially, I didn’t physically have the time to put into a full-time education while starting my life over. The result was having to drop a class to ease the burden.
Available Time is Different for Everyone
Not every student has the option to attend full-time classes while working some part-time job and living in the dorms. Some of us have families to care for, which can tap a lot of that free time right off the bat.
Most non-traditional students, such as myself, have responsibilities far beyond most teens going from high school to college. And those responsibilities aren’t things we can set aside.
For instance, I’d rather not have to set up a tent for shelter this winter. So, I am putting more time into making sure I have a place to live before snow falls. That also means I need to focus more on personal elements over scholastic.
There are only so many hours available during the day. Unless you have a stylish Delorian and a flux capacitor, you need to adjust schedules accordingly.
Now, can I maintain four classes while working full-time and trying to get into an apartment? Yes. But at what cost? The sacrifice I was making was self-care. And if you can’t take moments to breathe and relax, you wind up burning yourself out.
Think of the tachometer in your car. When the RPMs are in the red, it means you’re coming close to burning your engine up. Trying to do too much at a constant pace keeps your internal tachometer in the red and climbing. Eventually, your engine will blow, too.
Feeling Lazy or Guilty?
A lot of people will push themselves to avoid feeling lazy or guilty. Yes, technically, we can handle X, Y, and Z. But as I pointed out above, it usually comes at the cost of yourself. What is the point of handling all of those things if you’re not able to smile, enjoy life, relax, or live without ultra-high levels of stress?
It’s not lazy to have to pull back on some of the things that fill up your day. The only ones who are truly lazy are those who have no ambition or drive to improve any part of their lives. Even if you’re handling one class per semester because your life and work take up the rest of your time, that is not lazy.
Guilt is another emotion that many of us feel, especially when it comes to something we know we can handle. As I said, though, it comes at a great cost. Pushing ourselves to the edge of sanity is never a good thing.
Did you know that stress contributes to 120,000 deaths every year at the workplace? Not to mention all of the physical complications that come from high-stress environments, such as weight gain, heart complications, migraines, a lack of sleep, and more. Any one of these conditions can make life very complicated.
No Time for You Time
Since trying to juggle everything that is currently going on, I’ve had to cut all of the things that were relaxing. This means very little writing, no gaming, no show watching, and constantly being stressed about managing the entire day.
It’s vastly important to find time just for you. Whether it’s taking a 20-minute walk in nature or spending a bit of time relaxing with your favorite book or music playlist, you need to carve out some time for yourself.
And no, taking you time is not selfish. In fact, there isn’t a therapist on this planet who would call you selfish for wanting to focus on you for 30 minutes per day.
Because I have so much going on at the moment, I could only get quality time for myself by dropping one of my classes. That’s because I know that if I keep pushing as hard as I was, it could cause all kinds of issues in all of my classes.
This is especially true when it comes to getting enough sleep every night. A lack of sleep can cause all kinds of hell both physically and mentally. Instead of acing all of the classes, you could find yourself making too many mistakes and failing a few because you’re fighting your own exhaustion.
In my case, I haven’t been able to write as much as I would like, which is one method that helps me relax. I am happiest at my keyboard, and I haven’t been able to do much since my plate has been so full every day.
You Are a Priority
How often do you view yourself as a priority? Sure, you might have jobs or take care of your kids as urgent responsibilities. But do you view yourself as someone who needs as much care as everything else?
For the longest time, I didn’t. Throughout a large portion of my life, it was all about making sure everything and everyone was taken care of while sacrificing time for myself. In other words, I stopped having fun.
And because I was close to burning out, I started imploding. I wasn’t writing as much, I wasn’t playing games with the kids, I hadn’t been golfing in a long time, and much more. All of the things that I loved doing were no longer on my radar.
Not viewing yourself as a priority will impact more than just your life. It can also impact your relationships with others. You could inadvertently isolate yourself from those you love, only to realize they stopped approaching you because you were “too busy” to listen to them.
Yes, working hard can get you to where you want to go. But you also need to balance self-care if you want it to be worthwhile. You are just as important in the equation as anything else in your life.
Sometimes, You Have to Drop Things
I’ve had a problem with overloading myself for a very long time. But recently, I’ve had to reel things back, mostly to save my sanity and personal relationships. You’re not a failure if you have to drop some things, including school. On the contrary, it’s a good example of being self-aware.
We’re not robots or algorithms. We need downtime to maintain ourselves.
Now, I’m not saying that you should become a couch potato 16 hours per day as part of “self-care.” But you do need to find moments in your life that are dedicated to just you. And sometimes that means dropping side projects or tasks to keep your mind from caving in.
Be kind to yourself.
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