{"id":20379,"date":"2014-06-26T09:22:47","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T13:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=20379"},"modified":"2014-06-26T09:22:47","modified_gmt":"2014-06-26T13:22:47","slug":"overwhelmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2014\/06\/26\/overwhelmed\/","title":{"rendered":"Overwhelmed"},"content":{"rendered":"\"2014-06-24<\/a>\r\n\r\nI sometimes feel like I only have two modes as a student: working and actively taking a break from working. Fast-moving deadlines are a pervasive part of being a student, and during busy periods I can't help but feel that there is always something I could be working on. While I certainly schedule in time to relax, be social and breathe, sometimes I feel like I\u2019m scrambling to get everything done.\r\n\r\nAnd then of course, there are the things you add to your schedule by choice. Even now, I spend a few evenings each week after my summer job writing for music blogs. During the school year, I also wrote and edited for a newspaper and magazine. I do these things because I love them and I learn a lot, but there\u2019s something mentally very different from writing an enjoyable article on deadline and doing something enjoyable for its own sake.\r\n\r\n
\"Overwhelmed<\/a>
Overwhelmed by Brigid Schulte. Via npr.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nBeing overwhelmed\u00a0is something of an epidemic. How many times have you answered with \u201cbusy\u201d when someone asks you how you are? I recently read a book by Brigid Schulte called Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play when No One Has the Time<\/i><\/strong> that explores this very phenomenon. While it covers many interesting topics like the gender divide in leisure and how policy affects work\/life balance, the main thing that resonated with me was the discussion of an \u201cideal worker culture\u201d.\r\n\r\nThis is a cultural ideal that pushes us to work longer and harder, though I admit for me this feels self-imposed. I want to be able to do a lot of things, and do them well. Ambition and drive keep me going through long nights of exam preparation and push me to continue to take on writing opportunities that I know I will learn from, but there is a bit of a dark side to it. Sometimes exhaustion is my primary emotion, and it can be hard to take time to completely relax during a flurry of deadlines and tests, especially if I don't have\u00a0social plans in place.\r\n\r\nFortunately, the book was also full of ways to reduce \u201cThe Overwhelm\u201d that could easily be adopted by students:\r\n