Student Blog: How I'm Managing My Summer Responsibilities

This summer, I’ve been preparing and planning for the various productions my university’s two theatre companies will be putting on next semester. What that has looked like so far is meetings, to-do lists, and emails (so so so many emails.) As I’m on three production staffs (Production Manager for one show and Lighting Consultant for two shows,) I have found that practicing time management is an absolute necessity. But not only do I have to worry about theatre things, I’m also Managing Arts & Culture Editor for my school’s newspaper, so I have to make time to write and edit articles. Here are five time management tips I’ve been utilizing in navigating how to balance my responsibilities this summer!

1. To-do Lists

Having a to-do list to see all of the tasks I need to complete has made me feel so much more productive. One of my responsibilities as a production manager involves fielding emails to ask people if they’d like to join the production staff, since we have a few vacant roles. I keep track of who I’ve been asking and who I plan to ask by keeping a long to-do list of positions and names. Once they reply, either accepting or declining the positions I offer them, I highlight their names green or red, depending on their response. It’s an easy way to organize who I’ve contacted, see if they’ve accepted or declined, and see who I still need to send emails to.

2. Prioritizing

Writing articles for my school’s newspaper involves a lot of prep work - finding topics to write about, finding people to interview, drafting interview questions, and scheduling interviews. Not only am I writing articles, but I’m also editing other people’s articles as well. Some days, I have to prioritize my journalism responsibilities because if there’s an article I need to edit, it's better to get that done sooner than later. If I have my own articles I’m writing, I have set deadlines where I need them completed by, so sometimes my theatre responsibilities have to be put on the back-burner so I can meet those deadlines. Being able to determine and identify what tasks are more important at the moment has been a skill I’ve been trying to get better at over the years, but right now, I think it’s going pretty well!

3. Establishing Boundaries

Going off of prioritizing what’s important, recognizing how much work you can handle at the moment is also equally as important. I recently made a rule for myself saying that this summer, I can only write one article for the school newspaper per month due to all the other responsibilities I have. Additionally, I have turned down article opportunities because given the other responsibilities I have, I know I wouldn’t have time to write new articles. Establishing boundaries and saying “no” to some things is a great way to keep yourself from becoming too overwhelmed with work.

4. Brain Breaks

Yes, work is important but so is not work! Taking time to pause on completing my responsibilities to take a break has been so good for my mental health. I’ve been spending my brain breaks playing Fall Guys and Minecraft, scrolling TikTok and watching YouTube. Though, one thing I would say to be careful of with brain breaks is accidentally letting them go on for too long. I have been a victim of this many times - sometimes even purposefully choosing to not return back to my work. On the flip side, sometimes I find that it’s difficult to allow myself to take a break. Once I’m in a steady groove of work, I often burn through it for hours on end, without keeping track of the time. It’s like binge watching, but binge working. To avoid both scenarios, I’ve been setting timers on my phone to keep me on track. 

5. Creating a Productive Work Environment

This one I’ve actually haven’t been utilizing, but I’m planning to! So far, I’ve been doing all of my work in my bedroom, sitting on my bed, and even though I get work done, I think my space could be more productive. I want to try driving to Starbucks early in the morning and then spending the whole day there just doing work. I always see people in Starbucks with their laptops and coffee just typing away, so maybe I could try it out and see if that works for me!

I’m still learning how to be more effective in managing my time, but I hope these strategies on staying productive this summer were helpful! They’ve been very helpful for me. I’m definitely going to bring these strategies with me into the new semester.