Are you ready? By now, you are moving into the stage in your life where you start to feel the same pressure to “know” what you want and where you are going as you did in high school and college. Yet somehow it feels that much more intense.

You may be coming back to academics after being away or continuing from undergraduate school. This is a time where you need to continue your academic excellence. Yet, you also need to hold a job and keep up with non-academic responsibilities. This could be very overwhelming and burnout can come on strong.

Asking for help is not failure. Re-examining the strategies that got you here and re-thinking your priorities is a good thing. This level of academia isn’t just a continuation of college, the strategies you worked so hard to hone may not work the same here.

What is the difference between a job and a career? Should you jump ship or stick it out? What is the next step? You were so organized in college, what happened?

In school you didn’t have to work with the same people everyday, you were not asked to plan further than a few months then the class was over and you could move on. Working a full-time job or running your own business may not seem to have the rhythm you came to rely on in college, but it does exist. The cycle will likely be longer and you may have less room for error but that doesn’t mean you can’t master this area of life. You can develop strategies that make you a smart worker rather than a hard worker.

Relationships are complicated, including parents, significant others, children, and friends. As an adult, you are expected to manage all these relationships, a job, and self-care. Everyone struggles with feelings of failure and inadequacy. You might think you are not organized not because you are disorganized but because you struggle to shift with change.

While learning to work smarter rather than harder may give you more time and space for your personal relationships, you may need to work organizing shifting priorities on a daily basis. You can learn strategies to role with the sometimes moment to moment adjustments and give yourself permission to regroup when your organizational system stops working.