Editorial: Is balancing our social life, school, and sleep possible?
It’s time to debunk the triangle theory and take control of our lives.
As students, we’re all familiar with the classic dilemma: study, socialize, or sleep—pick two. Let’s say you pick study and sleep because you’re a good student and you care about your grades. In that case, your social life crumbles and your university career may not be as memorable as you wanted it to be. Perhaps you choose social life and study, but then how are you supposed to avoid dark circles under your eyes?
For our purposes, let’s call the study, social life, and sleep dilemma the “triangle theory.” The problem with the triangle theory is that it doesn’t truly describe the life of a student. Some of us must work part-time jobs, attend classes, do homework, and spend time with friends and family. If you attempt to do all of them on a regular basis, you’ll eventually end up crying while watching Netflix and hoping that tomorrow will be a better day.
There are two real solutions to the triangle theory: 1) learning to merge them all, and 2) prioritizing which ones are important and when.
Let’s go back to the study and sleep scenario. The key to including social life is to find friends whose schedules and goals align with yours. That way, you can study with them during the day and have breaks in-between where you socialize. Study breaks prevent you from burning out and keep you focused. Pair that with socializing and you’ve got yourself a merged triangle theory.
University also has periods when the workload isn’t piling up all at once, namely reading week. Though reading week is intended for us to catch up on school, it is also a time to relax and spend time with friends and family—a perfect opportunity to prioritize what we need most.
University is a training period for our time management skills; it’s a stage where we find what works best for us and when. Balancing our social life, sleep, and school is possible—so long as we fine-tune our time management skills.
