Improve your balance

What do two major exams, three worksheets for A.P. Art History, 20 pages of reading for British Literature and a 100-page deadline all have in common? They are due tomorrow. Without fail, you can rest assured that the busiest times in yearbook are also the busiest times for everything else in life. Homework piles sky-high, tests come at you at an alarming rate, your youth group has all of its major activities, family obligations increase because they haven’t seen you for weeks…the list goes on and on. So how do you balance between everything? I offer you these three suggestions:

Prioritize your life – Setting priorities between your different subjects and activities makes it considerably easier to organize your thoughts and actions. After accomplishing one task, you simply move on to the next one. “…It’s as easy as one-two-three…” This easy and effective method also helps eliminate time wasted on unimportant things. Note: don’t spend two hours getting rid of the glare on a basketball in an image if you don’t have time to do it.

Stay focused – I cannot stress to you the importance of staying focused. By maintaining focus, especially during those late nights after you’ve spent way too long staring at a computer screen, you will work more efficiently and effectively. A trick that always helped me during the crunch time was putting on headphones and completely isolating myself. I recommend that you find your own focus technique.

Ask for help – It’s important to remember that no matter how competent you are in yearbook, everybody needs help once in a while. Even though this seems like an obvious solution, it’s surprising how many people either forget or do not want to do this. I recommend that you don’t let your stress level get so overwhelming that you end up crashing because of it. Instead, you should allow others to give you advice or help you de-stress your life. Just remember that asking for help should not be used as a result of laziness.

The struggle to balance between all of our obligations and commitments goes far beyond the yearbook room and school. Just remember that while stress can be your worst enemy, it is also a good motivator to meet that deadline.