Structure Beats Juggling

I'm not good at juggling. Sometimes, I have too many events and assignments going on in my life at once, and I know I can do all of them, but when keeping track of them becomes a task of its own, I get overwhelmed. That's why, some semesters, I make a rotating To Do list I title "What's Due When." I write down the list of dates, chronologically, like "Fri Mar 1, Sat Mar 2, Sun Mar 3," etc. , and next to each date, I write down what's due that day. Each date gets its own line, and I go down as far as I feel I need to. As time passes, I delete past dates, so the whole list scrolls upward, reminding me which due dates are (literally) coming up next. This helps me focus on the most urgent assignments first and helps me understand exactly how much time I have left to work on any given assignment. Putting my assignments in a (chrono)logical order helps me remember what I should be working on next and lets me avoid having to juggle assignments.

Sometimes, the best thing we can do is put our challenges in some kind of order, almost any order really, and deal with them one at a time. They're more manageable that way. At least, that's what I've found. It works for me. If you ever feel overwhelmed, you might consider trying it, too.