a post on balancing the craziness of life :)

As the genius Ferris Bueller puts it, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” (Sorry I had to lol) I definitely have had to remind myself of this famous quote after over committing. The first tip that I have for y'all is just that. Don't over commit. It is okay to say no. You want to be able to put time and effort into everything you do, as well as enjoy it, and if you have wayyy too many things on your plate, you will always be stressed trying to juggle it all. And yes, there is a difference between pushing yourself & striving to do well in many different areas & over committing, & this post is about the latter.

1) It is okay to have priorities, & it is okay to say no.

Typically people have a hard time saying no because they feel like they are disappointing someone or being rude. But it is completely the opposite. Saying no means you respect yourself and your time. It is not selfish to think about what is in your best interest.

2) Know what your personal limits are.

If you don't know how much you can handle and how many things you have already committed to, then you can't manage your time well. Knowing your emotions and how much you can handle is important, and LISTEN to those emotions. Keeping a calendar or a planner to keep track of commitments is a good way to make sure you are still keeping time for yourself.

3) Enjoy what you do.

You are not going to want to waste your time on hobbies that you don't enjoy doing. Don't do it because your friend does it, or your parents want you to. Do it because YOU want to. It is a lot easier to find balance in your life if you have those things in life that excite you! My sophomore year, I was presented with a very hard choice. I was in orchestra, choir, & theatre, and since I wanted to take German my Junior & Senior year I had to choose two out of the three. Many tears were shed, as I didn't want to disappoint my parents or my Orchestra director, but in the end I choose what made me most excited. High School only happens once, so be involved in things you want to spend your time in.

The second thing I am going to talk about is balancing school, work, friendships, relationships, family, and extracurriculars. Feel free to read through all of them, or maybe just the areas you are seeing a pattern of struggling with.

1) Balancing life & school

School can be difficult for many reasons, and a big one being that it's pretty difficult to have motivation for homework. Something that helped me a lot this year was that I would use hanging out with my friends or going shopping as an incentive. "If I finish all my homework Friday night, then my sleepover on Saturday will be stress free!" This helped my productivity because it was like a reward, & I had something to look forward to. Also, I utilized any time I had at school to work on homework. If your teacher gives you study hall, USE IT!! Honestly, I know it's not the best to hear, but developing good study and homework habits is essential for balance. It's really hard to get in the habit of pacing your work instead of procrastinating, but once you do it's SO MUCH easier.

2) Balancing life & work

I have only had a summer job, and I babysit, but that is super flexible so I am not a expert on working during the school year. My best advice is to take advantage of any flexibility in your job & remember to not over commit. Have your friends & family visit you at work, so you can see them a little too while working!

3) Balancing life & friendships

Obviously I would spend all day with my friends if I could, but it's hard when you want to dedicate time in many other relationships as well. Usually for me, if I had a pretty free weekend, I would complete my homework on Friday night (yes I know it sounds horrible but it's so worth it!), then dedicate Saturday night to my friends and Sunday night to my bf or vice versa. At the end of the day, these friends are gonna be there for you, so you should be there for them too. Communicate with your friends and develop a trusting relationship, so that if there is a day you are swamped with homework or your family is having a last minute family night and you have to cancel plans, they understand. Another crucial part of balancing friendship is having friends who make you a better person. Life is too short to have toxic people in your life that don't support and uplift you. I can proudly say that my friends are some of my BIGGEST fans & they all make me very happy :)

4) Balancing life & relationships

Balancing time for a relationship is one of the hardest things. I'd say some of the most important things that keep balance in a relationship are trust, communication, & respect. Yes, I love my bf very much but we respect each other enough to know that we both have separate lives, families, and friends. The last thing you want to do is be controlling in a relationship. You should trust your partner enough to let them spend time with other people they love, like their friends and family, and you should WANT them to have those connections in their life to maintain that healthy balance. If you are feeling as though you don't spend enough time with your partner, communicate. Nothing is going to be solved if you don't say something. You can alternate eating lunch everyday with your friends and your boyfriend, or you can have a big group hangout with a lot of friends and then hang out alone after. I'm not saying that you shouldn't spend time with your partner, because quality time is essential to a healthy relationship, but there should not be pressure to spend ALL of your time with them.

5) Balancing life & family

Family is a very important aspect of life, & I know for me it's hard with everything going on to spend time with them as well. My biggest tip is to talk to your family, communicate with them on what is going to work well. If your family prefers to have space, that's totally okay too. I communicated with my family that weekends are more my time, for friends and my bf, and some school nights we would play some games or watch a movie. I had space from my family when I needed it but was also able to spend time with them frequently. Remember to hug your parents, because as much as they annoy you they also have done so much for you :)

6) Balancing life & hobbies

I said a lot of things that apply to hobbies in my first paragraphs, but make sure it is a hobby you want to dedicate your time to. For me, balancing theatre and school can be VERY challenging at times, but I adore theatre and it is something that doesn't feel like a chore. When I am not being used at rehearsal, I will work on homework or study. Doing activities after school is really difficult, but find ways to modify your work so it doesn't all creep up on you at once. Maybe the day you have a really late practice, you can take half of lunch to finish your homework for the first part of the day's classes. You got this!

That's all for this post about balance! Hope y'all enjoyed and got something out of it!

Quote: "Balance is a feeling derived from being whole and complete; it's a sense of harmony. It is essential to maintaining quality in life and work."

-Joshua Osenga

xo, emma