I often am asked what I'm involved with at school, then stared at in disbelief when I rattle off the number of classes I'm taking (five), my different jobs (three) and an alphabet soup of organizations I'm active in (two - one of which I am the president).
The usual response is, How do you sleep?!?
Very well, actually - when I am able to.
See, when you are busy, you also are always tired, so it's pretty easy to get a good night's sleep because you have been looking forward to it since you woke up that morning. That's how I drag myself out of my warm, comfortable bed - knowing that 12 or 15 or 18 hours later, I will be returning to those flannel pants under my quilt, except everything will be much colder.
The next response is, How do you get everything done? To that, I refer the questioners to my favorite Bible verse from the Book of Genesis: And on the seventh day
God created the daily planner so the busy people of the world could rest in the assurance that they had their own personal Bibles by which they could organize their lives.
Most people forget about this gem from the book of creation, but it is actually the one that makes our world go round. Daily planners are the single greatest invention of mankind.
I live by my planner even more than my cell phone, which is good because it will never run out of batteries. I would not be able to function throughout the day without looking at my hour-by-hour schedule, which is color-coded with highlighters according to activity so there will be no mistake about where and when I need to be somewhere and what I should have finished before that time.
The organization of my planner, daily to-do list and weekly assignment list should help prepare me for a real job. I'm looking forward to a real job so I actually have time to relax. Unfortunately, I haven't found the best place to add job searching into my planner. I'm hoping my organizational ambition will automatically get me a job before June 10.
I like to call my neurotic form of organization active procrastination. Instead of actually finishing my readings and papers, I make lists of when each assignment needs to be completed along with the priority levels.
But daily planners aren't just for my school-, work- and organization-related activities - they help me plan when I have time to socialize. I don't have classes Fridays, so Thursday nights seem like the perfect time to work on my lame social life.
Unfortunately, Thursday nights in my planner usually are colored blue, meaning I have to be at The Post. (Although some people here would say that The Post IS my social life, and I wouldn't necessarily disagree with them.)
I try to leave Fridays open for my own sanity. After four 12 plus-hour days in a row, it is nice to have a day of nothing so I can relax. Well, relax until I have to go to work Friday night. And Saturday afternoon. And Sunday night.
I also try to leave open time to eat lunch and dinner - usually between the yellow blocks of class, green blocks of meetings and pink blocks for one of my jobs. I have to put meals in my planner because I've come to the realization that my body cannot run on coffee and peppermint Mentos forever.
Sometimes I wonder if there is a better way to organize my life and the ridiculous number of activities in which I am involved -- or at least the number of things I talk about to make it seem like I am busier than I actually am. I'm probably stressing myself out more than needed and probably would be better at finishing everything if I spent less time organizing and more time doing.
If anyone has any suggestions for time management or would like to know about how I have organized my planner, daily to-do list and weekly assignment list, just let me know. I'll see if I have time to schedule you in.
- Cheryl Sadler is a senior journalism major who can't talk because she has to figure out the next item on her to-do list, so send her an e-mail at cs334202@ohiou.edu. 17
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Cheryl Sadler
