Tufts Blogs

College can be hard. Engineering can be hard. Sports can be hard. That being said, I truly believe I am able to perform at a higher level because of all the things on my plate. It may sound counterintuitive that I find being an engineering student with a minor and playing a varsity sport actually makes me more productive, but it’s true.

During season, I wake up every morning at 5:15! Yes, you read that correctly, I, a college student, voluntarily choose to wake up before the sun six days a week. Because of that schedule, and my general need for sleep, I must conversely go to bed by 10-10:30, if I want to be able to function fully the next day. This time constraint actually does wonders for my productivity levels. Knowing that I can’t afford to stay up until 2 am to finish a coding assignment or final paper ensures that I am more productive with my time during the day. Instead of wasting the hours away on Netflix or Facebook (it sometimes happens though—I can’t always help it), I find better ways to use a couple hours here or 45 mins there, so that I can stay on top of my heavy workload.

Now that the season has come to a close, I will no longer have to maintain that early wakeup, but I still hope to maintain the same mindset about my time. Getting sleep is very important and knowing that I have such tight restrictions on it allows me to thrive in my classes as opposed to feeling swamped for trying to do to many things. Maybe that time frame isn’t for everyone, but putting a little rigidity around your wakeup may help your day go a little smoother and those assignments to feel a little less burdensome.

Photo Credit: Anna Shcherbina (Flickr Creative Commons)