Finding Your Balance

Written By Devon Sprague

As a college student who also works, it’s so important to be able to maintain a healthy balance between work, school, and life in general. When I first started my internship here at Germer International, I had a hard time prioritizing what needed to be accomplished during my days. It was a big adjustment for me to have class, work, and an hour and a half commute every day on top of everything else that I needed to do. This led to me wasting time and not accomplishing certain tasks simply because I felt so overwhelmed. I felt as though I didn’t have enough free time to work out, to see friends, or even just relax. Even with being somebody who likes to stay busy, I was driving myself crazy trying to cram everything in to small time slots and it just wasn’t working for me. There is a difference between being productively busy, and not managing your time correctly, and I wasn’t being productive.

After a couple of weeks spending my days stressing about what my time was being spent on, I decided that I would create more of a schedule to ensure that I accomplished everything I wanted to. The first thing I did when making this schedule was to prioritize what was truly important to me. My prioritized list included the gym, club soccer, school work, time with friends, and then a small amount of time to relax by myself every night. Making this list helped me helped me realize that I was wasting time on things that weren’t beneficial, and it also made me feel like I was committing to making this schedule work.

I began planning ahead for upcoming days around my work and school schedule. Instead of sleeping in for an extra hour, I woke up to squeeze in a workout. Instead of sitting around during the hour of free time I had before work, I worked on homework assignments. I felt so accomplished when I started changing these small details and could feel the difference in my overall outlook on my days. I wasn’t constantly stressed and worrying about not having time for something and felt accomplished when at the end of the day, I had checked everything off my to do list.

This translates directly back to my recruiting training as well. There is a huge emphasis placed on planning ahead to ensure success. When watching training videos and talking with my co-workers, the advice I remember most is creating a plan for your days. Following a schedule is such a helpful tool to be the most productive version of yourself and utilize your time effectively. Knowing when to do research at work or knowing when to be on the phone with candidates is crucial to getting the best results from your day, similar to knowing when to be doing homework versus laying around thinking about you should be doing.

Learning how to manage my time was truly something that interning at Germer International taught me. As I am heading into the business world full time, I feel so much more confident that I will be able to balance working long days, while making time for myself. So many people get caught up in work or other tasks and don’t utilize their time correctly, but I have peace of mind knowing that I learned the crucial skill of time management.