I know that I put a lot on my plate so to speak this semester, so it should probably come to no surprise that right now I feel terribly overwhelmed. I was hoping I could avoid feeling like this. When the semester started, I made a commitment to give it my all. This is my last semester at school, and I’m currently scooping out full-time jobs for when I finish school. However, I’m not out of the clear just yet.
I had hoped that by using a ‘shock and awe’ level of aggression towards my priorities, I would be so wrapped up in everything that I wouldn’t have time to feel overwhelmed. Unfortunately that hasn’t happened. September went very well for me, but now things are seriously starting to pile up at school, and all my other commitments just make things that much more stressful.
Currently I am studying for five midterms, which are all going to be given over a period of 2 days several weeks from now. I also have three research papers to write, seven novels to read, a part in a play to memorize, and a children’s book to write. Somehow I have to find time to do all this while I am working in four part-time jobs, combined with school, mean that I generally leave the house at 7 AM and don’t get back home until ~10:30 PM.
My day is broken up into 5-7 tasks, consisting of classes, shifts at my jobs, piano lessons, and other miscellaneous tasks all of us must do. The upshot of having so many things to do is that I don’t get bored through the day, since I generally do not spend more than 3 hours doing one particular task. However, the downside is that everything is back-to-back. If something unexpected happens, it can often have a ‘domino effect’. Much of my schedule is so inflexible that certain school assignments, such as going to poetry readings or reviewing a school play suck up what little free time I would have. Sleep and food are two things in short supply- I can’t afford to eat on the go, and even when I bring a meal with me I rarely have time to actually eat anything when I am hungry. See, my stomach always seems to start rumbling when I’m mired in work. At that point, I can’t do anything about it except try to keep my mind off hunger. Often by the time I get home, I’m not hungry anymore :smack: . Similarly, during my night classes, I am barely able to stay awake when 9 rolls around. By the time I actually get home and lay in bed, I’m not tired anymore though.
Weekends aren’t much better, since I work 7 days a week, and often get home late Friday night only to have to be up bright and early Saturday to go to work. A while back, I had this grand delusion that I had to do all of this just to reassure myself that I am being productive. But right now I am miserable, and there’s nothing I can do about it because everything I have to do is connected to something else. The only thing keeping me going right now is the reassurance that I’m on the home stretch- soon enough it will be January, I will be done with school and on my way to finding a single full-time job where I only have to concentrate on one thing through the whole day. I only hope I can stay sane until then…
Aw… I feel your pain. Well, I don’t quite feel it that bad. Sounds like you should probably try to prioritize those tasks and skim a few things off the menu. I’d go nuts if I didn’t have my “me” time. (wow, I just said “me time”)
Makes me feel a bit better about my schedule. Good luck!
It is necessary to work four part-time jobs in order to be able to pay for school and other necessities. I also require a car for two of my jobs, and gas is currently $2.45 and soaring, which doesn’t help my pocketbook.
Unfortunately, I’m pretty much stuck like this for a while, only because everything I do is interconnected with something else. If I quit one job, it would have a domino effect…Also one advantage of working multiple jobs is being able to build up lots of job experience in a short amount of time- By working four jobs for a year, I’m getting four years of work experience in the span of one year 
Of course, money is a big issue. I’m currently trying to be as self-reliant as possible, and well, it is a lot more expensive than I originally hoped! :eek: