No sleep=tuff

Students, especially those at high-ranking high prep schools, colleges and universities, sometimes treat exhaustion as proof of ambition and that having a packed schedule is the only way to demonstrate dedication. Students are often pressured into thinking that they have to do a little bit of everything to stand out—have to be an athlete, have to be a club leader, have to perform community service, have to take additional courses with tutors outside the schoolday. Instead of focusing and dedicating their time on a few activities they genuinely care about, students join numerous clubs and take on “independent” research projects with the sole intention to strengthen their resumes. 

Being involved in many activities isn’t an inherently bad thing, but when your schedule leaves little room for actual academics and social interaction, you have to think of why you are choosing this schedule. Is it because these activities actually fulfill you? Or because you like the sound of a long resume? The problem isn’t having a busy schedule, it's thinking that you need one to prove your worth.

We have all been part of the conversation that begins, “I only had four hours of sleep last night. I’m so tired.” Yet, instead of recognizing the toll it takes, we often become more impressed by students who manage to perform well academically despite it. The ability to succeed while exhausted is treated as a sign of dedication, making stress and overwhelming workloads seem almost admirable. In a competitive academic environment, being overworked is often romanticized as proof of ambition and achievement.

On social media, we often see vlogs and videos of students recording their study sessions. The romanticizing of self-induced academic pressure is tempting, but notice how they are recording their studying and not the actual outcome. Seeing these online representations of what our own studies should look like can make students feel that rest is unproductive. Students may feel guilty about relaxing or spending time with friends because they believe they should always be working toward another achievement. But rest is not the opposite of productivity but a necessary measure to sustain it.

With pressure to stay busy, students may find themselves working without a real goal in mind, which eventually leads to burnout. When students sacrifice sleep, hobbies, and personal time to maintain their schedules, their academic performance and overall well-being may suffer. And in a college setting, they may even lose sight of the passion and ambitions that motivated them to pursue these activities in the first place.

The reality is that being busy doesn’t prove your worth; it ultimately makes you sluggish and consumed by passionless activities. Instead of encouraging students to accumulate commitments, we should encourage them to discover what genuinely interests them and devote their time to pursuing it.

This is something we can all contribute to; we can all stop encouraging and praising exhaustion and stop being impressed with a long but meaningless resume. Being busy should not be a measure of success, and exhaustion should not be a badge of honor. Ultimately, the value of extracurricular activities should be measured by the passion and impact they create, not by how many activities a student can list on an application or brag about online.