So Little Time

Though people toast champagne and sing and watch the ball drop in Times Square to ring in January 1, to me the New Year happens nine months later—the start of the school year. Bubbling excitement replaces bubbling beverages, back-to-school styles replace winter coats and scarves, and New School Year resolutions carry more weight than the calendar-year variety. For example, this will be the year that I work out regularly, read for fun nightly, and begin assignments well before their due dates (cue hearty guffaw).

I’m not alone. Many of us begin every school year with solemn oaths to be more productive. We swear to ourselves that we will go to the gym, practice an instrument, or code outside of class. We tell ourselves that we’ll be organized and committed to this new mantra of efficiency and productivity. Inevitably, however, we get lost in the chaos of a semester at Harvard. Control dances frustratingly, tantalizingly, just out of our reach. Some of us do not recognize the almost comic futility of a New School Year resolution. We tell ourselves, “This year will be different!” Then, a few weeks later, we fall off the wagon.

Part of the problem, I have realized, is also what gives Harvard its impressive standing among academic institutions worldwide: Harvard provides us with boundless extracurricular opportunities. Nobel Laureates frequently give special lectures on cutting-edge research. Students can choose from 455 clubs covering a broad spectrum of interests, from political to musical to downright whimsical. Perhaps most important and engaging, as most Harvard undergraduates will attest, are our fellow classmates.

Granted, famous lecturers, a cornucopia of clubs, and a fulfilling group of friends are boons, not distractions. But maximizing the value of our education requires that we strike an equilibrium between Harvard’s abundance of opportunities and personal development. So how do we have our cake and eat it too?

We find the balance we need by making decisive and incisive use of our time. We should minimize wasted time spent wringing our hands over pending assignments (distinct from downtime, a healthy part of any schedule). We should transform inefficient time into productive, fruitful time.

As for me, I have resolved to spend the half-hour in between loads of laundry jogging along the Charles instead of taking half-hearted attempts at a math problem before being interrupted by my 33-minute timer. I will also carve out 20 minutes at the end of my night to read. I’ll learn, but I’ll also relax. Though these changes may be small on the surface, I think they’ll go a long way toward improving my self-esteem and attitude.

My peers might scoff, unconvinced of my being able to follow through on these commitments throughout the semester. Perhaps they are right. But I have come to realize the value of pre-semester goals is not merely in their completion; merely setting them forces me to reflect on my shortcomings and strengths, and then to develop strategies to address them.

Every year, we make promises to ourselves, resolving to be more productive, more proactive, more purposeful. Though we may not meet these goals, their importance as a means of self-assessment and self-awareness is paramount. It is the optimism inherent in these resolutions that drives us to improve and work towards becoming better people. After all, what kind of resolution is deciding to remain stagnant from school year to school year?

So this year, I resolve to exercise. I resolve to read for pleasure. I resolve to work on assignments throughout the week, and create and maintain an organized calendar. This time, I will follow through. This time, it really is different.

Dhruv A. Pillai ’17 is a Crimson editorial writer in Winthrop House.