I'm sitting alone in my room, relaxing after a busy week, looking forward to a slow Friday before the weekend of duty that awaits me. I've been pulled in a lot of different ways finishing out this spring semester as a graduate student. After speaking with some colleagues and thinking about what I wanted to post tonight, I had the thought; how do you know what you're doing is too much?

I'm a big proponent of productivity, positivity, and life/work balance (as I'm sure many people are) but I feel as though I don't know if there is a single moment or feeling that lets someone know they need to scale back. Remarking to my colleagues and fellow graduate students about my various involvements, I had an epiphany that I felt like I am dipping my feet in a lot of different ways and being so busy can be a detriment even though I'm getting a lot of great experiences. If I can't put myself fully into each experience, is it really worth it? Is it more beneficial to do more things with less focus or less things with more focus? I know my reasoning for doing this comes from the anxiety of the imminent job search process. I want to be the most competitive candidate I can be going into the gauntlet of interviews next year. Since I am working as a hall director after being a resident assistant for two years, my drive to get outside that box has lead me to all sorts of great experiences in student affairs, volunteering my time to see how the other half lives outside of the residence life bubble. I can only hope it will all pay off in the end.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this or anyone's anecdotes about the constant struggle for balance.