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.
Excellent advice!
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