It is an important message, especially for those people who tend to forget about things—like time, themselves, and the world in general—when the semester starts to get tougher.

But it’s also a message that can be misinterpreted. I personally enjoy misinterpreting that message all the time. Just this past weekend, I should have been working on a project, researching a few stories, and writing this notebook. Instead, I argued that I needed a break, and in the end I accomplished little more than just what I needed for Monday.

It’s become a common trend for me—I decide that I can relax Friday and do my work over the weekend. Friday carries into Saturday, and by Sunday it seems there’s just too much to get through in one day. I finally get started Sunday night, stay up all night, and end up short on time all week trying to catch up for my lapse of energy.

By the end of the week I’m exhausted, of course, and so the cycle continues. This would all be fine, if I was able to go all week without a break. Unfortunately, more and more lately I’ve been considering what would be the consequences if I turned in this assignment late or didn’t turn in that assignment at all. Grades are beginning to seem less and less important in comparison to all-comforting sleep.

The absolute worst is when I start to think about sleep as an escape from the real world. Everything goes away if I close my eyes again, right? Ignore the fact that it will all come screaming back before I know it—that’s not what’s important at this moment, right?

My point is this: taking care of yourself isn’t so much a tradeoff between you and your grades. It entails managing your time so that you have the energy to accomplish the things that are important to you.

Before you can do that, you need to step back and decide what’s important to you. In the long run, how much will it matter if you lose a few points on this assignment? On the other hand, when this entire semester is boiled down to a series of letters, what is it going to say about you, and how will that affect you?

Personally, I was hoping this semester would turn out a whole lot better than it did. I expected myself to hold up a lot better under the pressure. There’s not a whole lot I can do about most of it now, though. All I can do now is stick to my guns and do the best I can from here on out.