Halftime Wednesdays

Everyone’s schedule is built different, this is no surprise. Some people will work for four straight days, and take three off, while others will go to school four days in a row without work. How you set up your weekly schedule is very to managing the stress of your life. Henrick Edberg, a writer for the Positivity blog, posted some helpful tips on relieving stress at the work place. He notes that “it is also really helpful to find a good balance between work and rest from a weekly perspective. I do that by staying away from work and staying offline – except for one email check – during the weekend,” suggesting that you make some time for yourself. For myself, I like to take my time off on Mondays and Wednesdays (aside from school) and devote it to my son and stepdaughter. You never realize how relaxing playing with Pokemon toys and Barbie Dolls can be until it’s time for bed and you notice you haven’t had one cigarette.

Photo Courtesy of gograph.com

However, how does one get to the point to where they can take such time off? Well for those that only work or go to school, that is simple. Work ahead, in fact, you are already ahead of the crowd. For the rest of us though, we have to be a little more thorough with our tasks. Prioritizing you schedule can be most valuable, and according to the NHS Choices, you can categorize into four groups of priority; “Urgent and important, not urgent but important, urgent but not important, neither urgent nor important.” Doing this will help you accomplish the most important tasks first, which will in turn allow you some time off on those important days, if only for a few hours.

Then again, there are those instances where stress seems to just become overwhelming. For myself, I have a bad habit when it comes to handling stress, which I do not encourage. I smoke to help handle my own stress, knowing that it is doing more harm than good. A tad counterproductive, I know, which is why I have been looking for other ways to manage my stress. Helpguide.org does a wonderful job at highlighting bad, if not harmful, strategies for handling stress, and offering some healthier solutions, such as “make time for fun,” in which they offer a chart on relaxing ways for one to handle stress like “take a long walk,” and “play with a pet.” This shows clearly that taking a little time off for yourself each week can keep your stress level down.

Stress is your worst enemy. When you become stressed, it becomes much more difficult to handle your day to day routine, much less special work or school tasks. The American Health Association offers many different links that could prove helpful to managing stress, and even offers you to sign up for free to receive healthy living tips each month. Through the research I have done, I have found one very important common denominator, that being taking time off for yourself. Sometimes, in the deluge of life, we miss the man in the mirror, and this is the beginning of our downfall. If this article was helpful please let me know, especially if you have any helpful tips that I did not cover.

About this Blog

     In today's society, the struggle to provide a bright future for one's family is increasingly more difficult. From childhood, it is learned that if one goes to school, works hard, and makes goals, then their future is bright. However, what about life's little speed bumps? Unplanned pregnancy, debt, crisis, etc. The focus of this blog is to provide useful tips and resources to relieve some of the stress of trying to manage one's life.

                                          Photo Compliments of The Prospect

     One might ask what my credentials are to be speaking about this topic. It is true that I currently hold no degree, not even a bachelors, in any field. I am not one of the leading scientists in sociology, psychology, or any other “ology” that would seem beneficial to giving others advice. However, I hold what maybe the most important credential necessary for writing on such a difficult topic. I am going through life.
   
     Currently I hold a full time job working close to fifty hours a week (I’d be more than happy to provide my clock-out slips if you feel the need to do the math). At school, I am taking six classes, totaling sixteen credit hours. That’s just sixteen hours a week I spend in class. According to the Association of American Colleges and Universities, it is highly advised that students should “devote two hours of study time for every hour of class time,” which would put me at forty-eight hours a week spent on school. Now let’s add the hours up. A full week, seven days, holds 168 hours. If I work without over time, no more than forty hours a week, and do the school work that is advised, I would be spending 88 hours a week working in one sense or another. Doesn’t seem too difficult, right?
 
     Let’s then add the amount of time I spend in my car, driving too and from work. I live roughly an hour away from where I work and attend school (they are both close to each other though). So I spend at least two and a half hours a day, 17.5 hours a week, in a car. That brings our total up to 105.5  hours. Let’s then give roughly one hour per meal per day to eating. Three hours a day if you do what scientists suggest, 21 hours a week. 126.5 hours. A proper night’s sleep would contribute eight hours a day, 56 hours a week. Our total is now at 182.5. I also have a son, just over a year and a half old, so I have to attend to him every second I have him (five days a week normally).
 
     As you can see. My schedule is incredibly busy, yet I am finding time to write a blog in order to help people like me, people who are swamped to their shoulders with responsibility, and need just a little help. I may not have a fancy degree, or have done extensive research on the human limit, but I live my own limit every day. Pushing myself so that I may succeed, and in turn provide a comfortable life for my family.
   
     Life does not come with a text book. It is a learning process in which one gains knowledge through their experiences. A proverb, written by an unknown author, states that “a smart man learns from his mistakes, while a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.” The hopes of this blog is to bring together a community of followers who want to help others living the “same old grind” struggle. Through this, success may be accomplished by not just one person, but many.