Time management is one of those things that everyone strives for. Everyone wants to be able to say, "Yeah, I got 47 tasks done today and still had time for a two hour nap." For most of us, especially those of us in college, this really isn't realistic. That very well may be one of the most stressful parts of being in college.
Recently, I had the opportunity to experience a week where I quite seriously didn't have an hour to eat. When was this you might ask? The week after spring break. After giving me an entire week to relax and enjoy myself, my professors and others made my life the busiest it's ever been. This completely negated the point of the break. I came back refreshed and ready to handle the world, only to want to crawl under a rock after the first day back.
On one particular day, I woke up at seven (because they clean our bathrooms at 8), I got ready and came back to my room. I quickly checked my email, made a series of six appointments, and backed up my new phone. By the time I did this, I had to half-sprint to class. I had my first break between classes at 12:50. During this break, I immediately ran to my first appointment at 1. This went much longer than expected, and I ended up going straight from there to a meeting with my professor at 2. I was fifteen minutes early, so I used that time to check my email and make an appointment with my advisor. After that meeting concluded, and I felt I was in the desperate need for a coma, I had to work quickly. I needed to hurry up and complete the work for my night class that I hadn't even thought about over spring break. Once I did that, I needed to print 15 copies. The printers will only let you print ten at a time. Lucky me, the printer ran out of ink after seven. At the next computer lab it jammed after just four. So then I had 11. After a quick loop around to another lab, I was able to get my last four pages printed. But now I was late. Like, really late. I had less than eight minutes to get across campus to my class. I made it with two minutes to spare, and a very twisted ankle. My night class runs from 5:30 to 8. Once that was over, I had an event for my sorority that lasted from 8 to around 8:40ish. Lucky for me, my night class got out early enough so I wasn't late for that. Once it let out, though, I walked home on tired limbs ready to climb into bed and sleep. But then again, there was that meeting with my professor at two. We had met about a paper he had assigned the day before, which would be due the next day. So, I needed to stay up. I worked on the paper until my eyes felt like they'd bleed. 4 a.m. I hadn't showered. I hadn't eaten. And frankly I didn't care. I slept, and I cherished those four hours of sleep.
So you see, sometimes time management isn't an option. Sometimes being an adult gets in the way and suddenly you're doing 9,000 things on autopilot. I will say though, to professors who try to "make up" for spring break: you missed the point. And for the professors that assigned homework, even midterms over spring break, it was supposed to be a break. A time to relax. I understand you have a syllabus you need to get through, and you really didn't account for our nine-day break, but maybe that just means you need to be better at managing your time.
