Dear Ms. I-can-do-it-all,

Let me start off by telling you that you can’t do it all. I know that between being involved in different groups on campus, friends, homework and everything else, it seems like some days you don’t even have time to breathe. But as my freshmen year has gone by in the blink of an eye, I have realized I have too many obligations and not enough fun. My standard response to "How are you today?" has simply become "busy." So here’s a few things that you should take into consideration before you say yes to the next sign-up sheet.

My first piece of advice is that you shouldn’t be involved in anything you don’t actually love. My mom always told me when I was younger “Stress is what happens when your brain says no and your mouth says yes.” By over-committing yourself in general as well as to things you aren’t passionate about, it leads to being a part of things that feel like a chore. In this situation, I suggest that anything you find a “chore” you need to rid yourself of in your life. It adds to the stress and the negativity in your daily routine and in the end isn’t worth it. You need to be passionate about what you spend your time doing. Nothing you do should be mediocre and if you are overloading your schedule there is no way for you to be able to give everything you are a part of 100 percent of your time and effort.

Second of all, you have to make time to take care of your body. My skin had never broken out until I came to college and was really stressed about all of my meetings and classes. Also, the freshmen 15 can be real if you are stuck eating greasy campus food and fast food all the time, so spending a little time of your day at the gym wouldn’t hurt anything. While you may not believe it, spending even just 30 minutes a day doing physical activity can help boost your endorphin levels and easily helps turn a bad day into a good one. Do some fitness classes, run a little, hop on a bicycle! Taking just 30 minutes to an hour out of your day to relax a little bit and take care of your body can make all the difference.

Thirdly, you always have time to catch lunch or dinner with one of your friends, or even a random guy who asked you out. If you don’t have time to eat lunch with someone (I am guilty of this) then chances are your schedule is too packed. Meeting up with someone for 30 to 45 minutes to grab some food and talk about your life is not going to kill you, and as I previously stated, you need to take time out to take care of your body, and if your schedule is so crammed full of activities that you can’t eat, something in your schedule needs to go.

Here’s a question for you, can you remember the last time you went the entire day without worrying about anything or being stressed and simply enjoying your day and the people you shared it with? Chances are you can’t name the last time that happened, unless it was when you went home. I have so many hobbies and things that I love to do, and I couldn’t tell you the last time I did any of them. In Genesis 2:2-3 it says, “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” Our bodies and our minds are not meant to run full throttle from activity to activity on a daily basis, you need to take a day to yourself and really indulge yourself in the things you love in your life that aren’t your obligations.

Finally, your life “setting” shouldn’t be permanently set to survival mode. You really do need time to take a step back from everything and breathe. As mentioned earlier, if you can’t remember the last time you went without worrying you probably can't remember the last time you were caught up either. If you can dedicate some time every day to “catching up” eventually you won't have to try to catch up anymore, you will be completely caught up. After a while the survival mode feeling will fade and you won’t be freaking out in your spare time that you just forgot something. Matthew 6:34 says “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” God is taking care of you. Sometimes all it takes is to take a step back and remind yourself that by putting your trust in the Lord, everything will turn out the way it should. Try to set a goal of actually getting ahead of schedule, so that maybe you have time for a movie night with your friends.

So next time you want to say yes to the sign-up sheet, remind yourself that you can only do so much and that when it comes to being busy, less is more.