Balancing work and play

It’s always been difficult thing to do for me, but some people do it with ease, almost naturally, and they’re completely unaware that this thing that they do – balancing work and play – doesn’t come to everybody like it comes to them.

An naturally smart person will always assume that the average person is as smart as they are. It’s a very natural thing to assume that if I’m like so and so, everybody else must also be like that.

The only way to really balance work and play is to set a schedule. I can’t emphasise enough on this.

Set a schedule.

Set a schedule.

Set a schedule.

(And follow it.)

That last part is important. You need to follow your schedule, but don’t get too religious about it. The point is that you need to get work done when it’s work time, and get play done when it’s play time.

It doesn’t matter how to schedule it, as long as you’re getting enough sleep (in one continuous block of time). Breaking your sleep into multiple discrete parts throughout the day is a bad idea, because it doesn’t help your brain sleep and consolidate your memory properly, so it will impair your learning and general mental health.

And the tired hangover feeling that you get when you suddenly want to sleep but you can’t because you’re in school? That feeling’s not useful when you have to concentrate on what the teacher is teaching in class.

And that’s all there is to it.

Really.

You’ve got to make a schedule, follow it, but not too religiously, make time for sleep, food, hygiene and other required activities like exercise, and you need to do nothing more.