When people ask me what I do with my time, and I tell them, the response I get most of the time is, “Oh my gosh! How do you do it?!” I usually laugh and say something like, “Hell if I know!” Although I make light of my crazy schedule, I do know how it’s possible. I mean, I do it every week… mostly successfully, anyway. For those of you who don’t know, here’s a peek at my weekly commitments: church (where I sometimes read or do children’s ministry), community group (which I sometimes host and sometimes lead), teaching full-time, graduate school part-time, internship part-time, and Camp Gladiator. I hate to throw my husband in the mix but, for some reason, people always say, “And you’re married?!” To me, though, marriage isn’t really work, and it’s not not like I’m much of the traditional wife–you know, the little woman who does all the shopping and laundry and cooking and cleaning by myself while my husband just lays around and watches football. I have digressed. Really, I just want to share a glimpse into my life on a weekly basis and offer some advice for those who have a busy schedule, too.

My Weekly Schedule

(minus graduate school since I don’t have a set time I do school work each week)

• Sunday: church; meal planning; grocery shopping
• Monday: work until 4:00-5:30 depending on how much grading and planning I have
• Tuesday: work until 2:45; intern 3:00-6:00; Camp Gladiator 6:45-7:45
• Wednesday: work until 3:30-5:30; community group 7:30-9:00
• Thursday: work until 2:45; intern 3:00-6:00; Camp Gladiator 6:45-7:45
• Friday: work until 2:45-5:30
• Saturday: Camp Gladiator 9:00-10:00

How I Do It

Or, advice on how anyone can survive a crazy schedule

1. Embrace a Nike mentality. Just do it. Often, I look at my schedule, and I just think, “No. I can’t/won’t do it.” Then, I realize I have to. Basically, part of surviving a crazy schedule is just sucking it up.
2. Plan. Plan. Plan. You cannot live this type of schedule without some type of planner (or three, in my case). You need to map out your routine each day and look ahead to the days to come. If you aren’t careful, you could easily double book yourself or forget something (like a friend’s baby shower, for example).
3. Accept sacrifices. You are going to miss out on things. Sometimes your friends are going to want to meet up for lunch on a Saturday, but you have to go to the library to do research for an essay. One way to make this sacrifice bearable is to find an alternative. Find a hole in your schedule on another day and ask your friend to hang out then.
4. Value free time. If you have free time, use it wisely. There are two ways I use free time: for fun and for chores. If you’ve got a few hours and know that you need to clean, don’t lounge around. On the flip side, make sure you make time for fun, too, or you’ll be miserable.
5. Learn to say “no.” People are going to ask you to do more than you’re already doing, and you have to learn how to say “no.” For example, if I’m asked to pick up an extra duty at school (like leading a club or chaperoning), I almost always say “no.” I just don’t have time for that right now.
6. Make sure it’s not forever. If you’re going to have a crazy schedule like this, know why you’re doing it and have an out. There is a reason for each thing on my schedule. Anything unnecessary can and should be cut. Furthermore, if you have a crazy schedule, make sure it’s not going to be like that forever. Maybe you need to do it for a few years in order to make extra money, or maybe you have kids, so they take up a huge chunk of your schedule. Eventually though, you should find balance, so you don’t feel like your schedule is insane–even if that balance is just taking a “sick day” once a month in order to take a breather.

–M