Your extracurricular commitments are killing you

I was completely overwhelmed by all the things I thought I needed for a successful application. Studying to get good grades. Intense extracurriculars. Research publications.

Whenever I saw an opening for a new opportunity, I grabbed at it greedily, thinking that it would land me extra points on my application. An executive club position? Sign me up. A new research project? I’ll take it!

I realized these divided efforts were unsustainable, and would put me on the expressway to burnout. But I didn’t think I could stop. How could I? I was convinced I needed these 50 different activities to succeed.

Then, I came across the book Essentialism. Author Greg McKeown claimed that focusing on the "essential few over the trivial many" was what yielded quality results.  Or, as David Allen puts it,

You can do anything but not everything.

At first, I was doubtful. But exhausted and stressed out trying to keep up with my numerous, shallow commitments, I saw no alternative. I began to intentionally reflect on what activities were bringing in the most value, and cut out everything else.

Good grades were non-negotiable, so my time was well spent in periods of focused studying. Of my extracurricular commitments, I reasoned judo and research would give me the most outsized returns. Plus, I enjoyed them. Everything else had to go.

As I decluttered my commitments, I found myself feeling much more in control, and the quality of my achievements improved. With more time and mental and physical bandwidth available to dedicated to these tasks, I found myself performing better at tournaments, and making better progress in the lab. These results translated to more impressive achievements I could add to my application than I would have been able to otherwise.

To be clear, this refocusing did not mean I turned down all new opportunities. Rather, I strictened my criteria. I made my default answer no. The only exception was if an opporutnity really excited me, in which case I very carefully weighed the pros and cons, and whether I could handle it with everything else on my plate.

I repeat this process every few months to ensure that I'm still focusing on the few things that will net me the most value. In a nutshell, here are my steps:

COMMITMENT DECLUTTERING PLAN:

1. Evaluate all of your commitments. Which ones bring in the most value? Which do you enjoy the most? Which are the most likely to bring in achievements you can leverage on your application?
2. Pick the top 1-2 commitments and walk away from the rest. You can slowly re-introduce later these when you have the capacity to handle them properly.
3. Apply the hell yeah or no criteria to new opportunities.
4. Repeat every few months to ensure you are staying focused on the essential few.

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