Going Greek and Staying Geek

During your years at Trinity, or any college for that matter, you're going to run into different organizations that will both enrich your life and take up a massive amount of your time.  These groups can range from sports teams to musical groups.  One almost universal option on college campus's is the Greek system.

Here at Trinity we pride ourselves on having almost entirely local sororities and fraternities that allow our Greek system to function a little bit differently than the Greek systems on other campus's.  However, the one thing that is constant with the reputation of national Greek organizations is the time commitment that comes with rushing and joining a sorority/fraternity.  So how is a student supposed to manage their studies, going Greek, and keeping a social life outside of the Greek system? (Remember to fill in the blank with your own time-consuming and well-loved activity, this definitely does not only apply to Greek life!)

From rushing to new member orientation to the normal activities of your specific sorority or fraternity, any Greek organization requires a high level of commitment which, in turn, requires a large amount of time.  So, keep a calender with all of your club activities current and with you at all times.  Make sure that this calender includes club meetings, dinners, mixers, and any other activities.  Also, make sure that it includes all major tests and projects you have due so you can make sure to manage your time wisely enough for you to get all of your work done and then go out.  In your club's busier seasons, like during new member orientation, especially pay attention to all of the work you have to get done so that you can manage to do everything you want to do and not watch your class averages drop.  Take advantage of daylight and library hours to get all of your work done and, in the moments that you feel like you absolutely can not get any more work done, take a quick study break and then get re-motivated by remembering all of the things you want to do later on that will be a lot more fun if you don't have a big assignment hanging over them.

Another especially important thing to remember during the weeks in which you know your sorority/fraternity will be keeping you busy is to avoid procrastination.  This might sound really obvious, but procrastination is one of the number-one pitfalls for students who have conflicting interests competing for their time.  Sometimes procrastination can mean students either missing fun activities with their organization or not getting homework done, which is never a good thing.  For people with big procrastination problems and lots of work to get done, consider making a hour-by-hour schedule and then stick to it!

Finally, remember the ultimate rule of college time management.  If you occasionally don't get your work done, you can probably lose a few hours of sleep to make serious headway on it.  This is definitely not an everyday rule but, honestly, if you have some amazing and really fun activity for your club, sometimes that experience makes its worth it to lose a few hours of sleep and just be tired.  Also, during your club's busiest times of the year, make sure to make up your sleep when you can- whether it be at night or taking long naps in the middle of the afternoon.

Getting Refocused After Vacation

So you finally got a week off school where you stayed up all night every night, went out with your friends, and let all of the worries of school fly away.  Maybe you even had a fun sleepover with your sister and your dogs. (Like I did, and I even have photographic evidence!) Then, after your vacation flew by, you're back in your dorm room, dreading having to get back to school after a week of fun.  How is it possible to focus on homework when your mind is stuck on that last night at home with your friends or that fantastic vacation you went on with your family?

Here's the bottom line- the first few days after any vacation are probably going to be awful.  You're going to be tired, unfocused, maybe behind on your schoolwork, and possibly left with a huge pile of dirty laundry to do.  There's also a really good possibility that you're going to be tempted to skip a few classes to catch up on your sleep.  Don't do it- I promise you that it's not worth the extra hour of snooze time and that it will only cause you to be more stressed out about the amount of work you have to do.

Then what should you do?  First off, try to get back to school with enough time to unpack your stuff.  This seems like a small thing, but it's really hard to get around to your homework if you have piles of stuff left-over from your vacation laying around.  

When you're finally re-organized and physically ready for school to start, it's time to get mentally ready.  There really is no sure plan for this, except to take a deep breath and dive back into the books.  To stop yourself from going completely insane, try to at least schedule something fun that you can look forward to for the upcoming weekend or, if its really that awful of a week, start your weekend on Thursday.  (See my last blog entry for fun ideas for early weekends.)  However, most of all, try to get all of your work done during daylight hours so that you can use your nights for sleeping and catching up with the friends that you missed during your vacation.

Managing your Weekends!

So you've finally made it through your week of classes and tests and are ready to relax!  But wait, you still have a paper due next week, maybe even a test or quiz too.   Now what are you supposed to do?

If you have a crazy week ahead and need to spend your entire weekend studying, think about getting your fun for the weekend in on Thursday night, especially if you don't have any important classes on Friday morning.  This might seem like a weird idea, but it allows you to have enough fun to get you through your boring weekend.  Another plus is that, usually, if you have something big coming up in a class the next week, there usually won't be anything due the Friday before.  So take advantage of the fact that a lot of clubs have "College Night" or "Ladies Night" on Thursdays and get off campus! (A good club close to campus that has a Thursday College night is Posh.  Make sure that you're up to dress code- the picture is an example of how girls go dressed and, guys, wear jeans and NO tennis shoes.)

For a weekend where you have a moderate amount of work to do, take advantage of daylight hours.  If you can manage to get up in the mornings, just go to the library and get your work done so you can enjoy your nights.  Besides, nothing really starts on a weekend before 11pm.  Try to get all of your work done before 6pm, though, so you can go to dinner with your friends and then get ready to go out.

Another good option for getting all of your work done is going out one night of the weekend and staying home the other.  To do this you have to plan your weekend to pick the best night to go out and the night that you're going to be the most focused to stay home.

However much work you have to get done on the weekends, make sure to make a plan and stick to it!  Also, if you have a week from hell coming up, start making amazing plans for the minute that you are free.