A routine is something that many of us cannot help but have.  It comes with the inevitable structure of our time, whether professional or academic.  We have class from 10:00am – 10:50am, then from 1:15pm – 2:30pm.  One day will probably work from 9am – 5pm.  I know that I am not the only one who creates a pattern in my daily actions that correlates to certain times of the day.  What I didn’t know, however, was how much I rely on that routine to get stuff done.  How did I come to this realization, you ask?  Parents weekend.

I love Family weekend.  Not only because I normally get free food out of it, but also because I enjoy the company of my family.  This Family weekend was a little different than my last, however, because last time my parents didn’t exactly come.  I am pretty sure they went skiing, which is honestly a fair alternative that I would probably choose over visiting myself given the opportunity.  This time around, I got the whole gang, including my little brother who happened to be touring both Pitzer College and Claremont McKenna College.  On top of my family actually being here, two of my friends flew home to Seattle to see visit home, and another two of my friends had their families come visit.

Now I can see how one would fail to find the problem in this scenario, but my friends play a huge role in the upkeep of my routine.  We get every meal together, go to the gym together, and do our homework together every day.  Yes, we are a productive group.  If something happens and someone’s schedule changes, we have the group chat to coordinate timing and meet-ups.  This past weekend, the group chat was silent.  I’ve never experienced the silent group chat.  Sure, I have no idea when I’m supposed to eat lunch, but everything’s fine.

So, without the group chat constantly reminding me of how my friends are managing their time, I somehow naturally forget how to manage my own.  The consequences consisted of spending an entire Saturday long boarding around campus with my dad and brother as opposed to writing a five page essay on the role of institutions within varying economic theories.  I do not regret procrastinating in order to spend time with my family, because this is just one weekend out of the year.  I do however realize the importance of sticking to my routine even when key factors to my schedule are missing, such as my friends.

The biggest consequence, at least for me, of mismanaging my time would be the emails.  I can make up for lost time when writing an essay, mainly because I simply enjoy writing, but ignoring my email for a day was the biggest mistake of my week.  I opened my computer Sunday morning to about 47 unread emails, each one a notification of a potential internship from job boards on LinkedIn and Glassdoor.

So the majority of my Sunday was spent not on actual homework but on catching up with internship suggestions and organizing my options.  With the added work of internship applications on top of our academic homework, time management becomes even more important.  While I love spending every moment that I can with my friends, I need to focus on my individual routine the next time I decide to ignore my work for a day.  It is great to have others to help support your organization and motivate you to go workout or write your essay, but I would advise not becoming too reliant on that support system, or you may have to read through 47 job emails.