The Importance of Planning

By Isabel Berckemeyer

Staring from a very young age in my life, I have always been a planner. When my family would book trips or we would go on long car rides, I had to know every little detail about what we were doing, and when we would get there. For my 16th birthday, I was gifted a planner and it changed my life. I was able to add all my assignments to it, jot down my homework each day, and plan out what my life would look like between classes, clubs, practices, homework, etc. 

In college, this has been an aspect that I have valued heavily as my schedule has gotten a lot busier between classes, social life, clubs, sorority things, communicating with friends from home, and finding time for myself. I still use a planner but one thing that I have found to be valuable is writing my day out in my notes app. I start each week by adding my classes into each day, and then I add my mealtimes and the times that I am going to work out. I will also put in lunches with different friends or special dinners for each week. However, one thing I had never added or thought of adding until last week was time for myself. 

My sorority had a guest speaker one week ago whose name is Dr. Hazzouri. Dr. Hazzouri explained this concept that I had been using for a while as “mapping out your week”. She educated us on how helpful this is which I related to, but she also mentioned how it’s important to add time for yourself into this schedule. While working out is what I consider to be time for myself, I have realized that it’s important for me to have time to myself in the form of a walk, listening to music in my room, laying down, or just sitting outside. Last week, I decided I was going to add time to myself in my week and it has helped me tremendously. In this time to myself, I have found myself listening to music, calling my mom, watching Netflix, or just lying in my bed and doing nothing. 

I have found this time to be extremely helpful to my well-being and feeling refreshed while at college. I hope that you too can involve this practice in your week and see how much better it makes you feel!