Written by Lauren Smyth
I wasn’t planning to get a job when I enrolled at Hillsdale, but I changed my mind less than 24 hours after move-in day. During my preliminary campus explorations, I spotted a sign on a pin board advertising a position for student writers. Well, I thought, I’m a writer, and I’m a student. Match made in heaven. I have time for this, right? Right??
Enthusiastic freshman me, enrolled in 12 credits, didn’t know how good she had it. I found out next semester, however, when I confidently signed up for 17 credits and an assortment of regularly scheduled campus activities. Gone were the days of freewheeling “I’ll-get-to-it-when-I-get-to-it.” It was time (actually, long past time) for me to develop a routine.
A little-appreciated truth about college is that, with scheduling habits, it’s possible to achieve heroic combinations of work, academics, and play. The keys to establishing a pattern of productivity are choosing, planning, and resting. All three, well-balanced, are critical to finding your way in college.
If you want to not only do it all, but do it all well, here’s what you need to know.
Choosing
There’s a nearly infinite variety of opportunities at Hillsdale College. Want to talk on the radio? Now you can. Do you enjoy dancing like you’re the main character in a Jane Austen novel? We’ve got that, too. Do you like to drink tea out of a china teacup in the afternoons? Well, you’re in luck. There’s just one catch: You can’t do everything. You have to choose.
The first stop for finding out what activities might interest you is the Source, an enormous outdoor event at the beginning of the year where student clubs, intramural and club sports, volunteer groups, and military recruiters congregate and vie for your esteemed attention. You’ll get a lot of free stuff, and you’ll write your email down on a multitude of lists. In a couple of days, your inbox will be filled with messages. “Join the equestrian club!” “The archery club meets this Wednesday!” “Can you write a newspaper article about Vladimir Putin?” “Are you interested in applied mathematics?” And so on. This will be overwhelming, but you should congratulate yourself: Out of Hillsdale’s many clubs, you’ve narrowed it down to, say, 30. That’s a start.
Your next task is to sift the emails. Maybe you have an irrational hatred of the sign-off “Cheers,” so you delete any such emails. (OK, maybe that’s only a good option if you’re really desperate.) Consider how long each activity will take and how much commitment it requires. Can you skip a week if you find that you can’t manage getting out of bed, and if you can’t, will you be willing to put in that effort even when you’re swamped with midterms? Can you show up late if your class goes long? Do you have to sign a waiver? Bring equipment? Considerations like this should help narrow down the decision still further.
The final task is to figure out what you actually like to do. Maybe you’ve been writing poetry since your sophomore year of high school, but it suddenly dawns on you that the only reason you were doing that is because you got free publication credits in the school magazine. It’s part of your life now, but does it really need to be? If you could spend that time doing something else, would you? Spending time on one thing means you don’t have that time to spend on something else, so make sure you’ve figured out which tradeoffs are worth it and which aren’t, even if that means switching up your pre-college routine.
No decision made at this stage is permanent. If you choose to play soccer and quickly decide that soccer isn’t for you, there’s plenty of time to change your mind. College is a chance to try new things without feeling pressured to commit immediately.
Planning
Whether you’re a die-hard fan of paper planners or an iPad kid (like me), you’ll need to come up with some way to partition your weeks in advance. Sit down every Sunday evening and make a plan, starting with regularly scheduled activities like clubs, classes, and sports, then working your way down to special events like speeches, dinners, performances, etc. If two events overlap, write them both down. Make sure to factor in transportation and travel time, even if you’re just walking across campus.
Deal with any double bookings only after you’ve planned everything else. This way, you won’t get distracted by all the other things you have to do. Remember that it’s OK to say “no.” After all, you can’t be in two places at once, you can’t avoid sleep forever, and you can’t teleport—and everyone knows it. When dealing with double bookings, choose whichever event is most important to you or the event with the higher level of commitment. If that still doesn’t narrow down the choice, consider which one you committed to first and give that one priority.
This planning step helps you know what you can and can’t commit to in the future. When your friend asks if you want to spend the weekend at their lake house, you’ll know right away whether or not you should accept the invitation. You won’t have to worry about getting everything done because one glance at your planner will tell you how much time you have to do your tasks and how much priority you should give each.
Here’s a pro tip: Separate your weekly to-do list from your daily to-do lists. For example, if your goal this week is to write a paper, put that onto the weekly list and put “Paper – 1 hour” on each of five school days. This divides the larger task into bite-sized, achievable steps while ensuring that you don’t lose sight of the main goal.
Resting
The key to productivity is not “hustle.” Having a rigorous work ethic is helpful, of course, but it’s equally important to have a rigorous rest ethic. This means that when you rest, you should commit to it. Take your mind off work and immerse yourself in free-time activities like eating, sleeping, watching a movie with your roommate, and running in circles around Central Hall. If you make an agreement with yourself to take genuine breaks, you’ll find yourself needing them less often, and you won’t be surprised halfway through the semester by a tidal wave of burnout.
Let’s say you want to study for one hour. You set a timer, work as hard as you can for that one hour, and then play a game of checkers with your friend. During that game, don’t think about work; focus on upholding your reputation as a master of checkers and proving to your friend that it’s a game of skill, not luck. Or here’s the introvert version: Finish the timer, and then spread out a picnic blanket under a tree and read a book, ignoring other responsibilities while your mind resets and recharges. (Remember: Everyone needs quiet, alone time, no matter how extroverted they are.) This is the definition of intentional, healthy, productive rest
“Rest” also includes things like exercising, getting enough sleep, eating, drinking water, and spending time outdoors. You may be tempted to think that you could get more done if you skipped these things, but in the long run, you’ll damage your productive ability and open the door to frustration and burnout
Rest is like refueling your car. Refueling isn’t driving, and it may feel like a waste of time, but driving is impossible without it.
If you take the time to choose, plan, and rest, you’ll find yourself achieving more in a single day than you ever thought possible. Not only that, but you’ll also feel good doing it. You’ll develop a rhythm of good, healthy habits that will allow you to excel without fatigue or missed deadlines.
The next time you’re faced with a decision on how to spend your time, review these three questions: Is it an activity I value? Will it fit into the schedule without crowding out more important things? Will it leave time to rest? If the answer to all three is “yes,” you can add this new activity to your planner, confident that you can handle the commitment.
Lauren Smyth, ’25, is a prospective political economy major and French minor. Outside of starting arguments in philosophy class, she enjoys curling up on a bench outdoors (sun, rain, or snow) to write novels or articles for her blog, www.laurensmythbooks.com.
Published in June 2023
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