OVER-PROGRAMMING

Every morning I wake up and have my coffee while I browse through my favorite blogs and my personal Twitter feed. Once that is finished and I have come to terms that I should begin my day soon I look at my calendar for the day. As an alumna it is full of meetings and graduate classes. However, it was not too long ago that I was in your shoes. To be honest I did not even use my iPhone to keep track of what I needed to do, meetings, and appointments. I was very dead set on having a written calendar because it helped me sort things out so much better. 

One of the things sorority women are constantly struggling with is over-programming themselves. I see my students every day running from class to meeting to another class. How we manage to balance our schedule with free time is beyond me, but we have all gotten so good at it. 

Part of this issue of over-programming it to be blamed on ourselves. We are the ones who sign up to join our sororities, classes, and other areas we are involved in. But we are not all to blame for this. Part of it is society's fault. In order to be competitive in the job market today we feel like we must have good grades and be very involved on our campus and in the community. If we do not have a well-rounded resumé, we feel like the HR department overlooking it will toss it out and give us no second thought.

For example, I have a student that is absolutely outstanding. She has a 4.0 GPA as a business major. She is President of her sorority and another Greek student organization. She is also the member of other student organizations and a member of every honor society she is eligible to be a part of. If she were to apply for a job and you were reviewing her application and resumé, you would be crazy to pass her up. I once asked her why she does it. She told me, "I love being a part of everything because I get to know so many people, but it also helps for me to stand out to my future employer. If they can see that I was able to manage all of this in my undergrad there is no way they will pass me up for a job." 

Over-programming applies to our personal and chapter life. If we are over-programming ourselves and our chapter members too much there we really are not getting the benefits from the activities we involve ourselves in. My student is a rare instance that it can all works out. But if you ask her how many hours a week she sleeps she will tell you 10 at the max, and that is a good week. Do not only allow yourself and your Sisters the opportunity to only sleep 10 hours a week. Trust me when I tell you it will make your experience so much richer if you examine the important things and cut out the rest.