We typically end up judging how busy we think someone is based on how many hours they’re taking. “Oh, you’re only taking 13 hours, so a chill semester?” or “23 hours, are you crazy?!”
Let’s get something straight here: the hours we’re officially taking are not the only thing defining how busy we are, because those are only the hours we spend in the confines of a classroom. Please understand that 15 scheduled hours may mean there’s another 20 hours a week at a job, and still no sleep.
Cliffsnotes.com says that for every hour in the classroom, students should spend two to three hours studying for that class. So that means if you take a 15 hour course load, in order to be considered a successful student you are supposed to be spending 45 hours a week studying outside of the classroom. There are 24 hours in a day, five days in a school week and therefore 120 hours in a school week.
So, 60 of those hours should be spent on school work, then 40 sleeping because you can’t forget to get eight hours of sleep a night for your health, that leaves 20 remaining hours which you have left to make sure you work enough to pay bills, cook dinner, take care of your hygiene, are involved on campus, maintain a clean living space, socialize with others and of course, work on internships so you can graduate and get a job.
It’s time for us to step back and realize how irrelevant hours are. Yes, time runs the world we live in. Yes, to your employer, time is important. But when you’re feeling overwhelmed it’s important to realize that time is man-made and you may never mark everything off the to-do list. Sometimes it’s just too long. So today, as you look at your to-do list and realize that every minute has something and none of those minutes are eating- remember to slow down. Break down your activities into 30 minute increments and be kind to yourself when maybe things get moved to tomorrow.
No matter how much or how little time we have, we still have to create some for breathing.
