No FOMO, Just JOMO

At the start of the school year, your inboxes were probably flooded with urgent messages, practically shouting out to you to sign up for the musical, join the robotics club, or try out for a fall sport. But now, as activities start to pick up, you realize that you’ve made the wrong decision. Regret starts to creep up in the back of your mind as you see your friends having fun, building new relationships, and achieving academic success. As you wonder about how things could have been different if you changed just one thing in the past, your regret starts turning to fear. Fear that you are missing out.

I swear, it’s always the fall season that puts us in this melancholy mood. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that the struggle starts as we approach our first big tests and deadlines. The theory that I want to present to you is that our fear of missing out (FOMO) is amplified by these academic pressures. Let me paint a picture: it’s the middle of October, and you are a week away from submitting a summative practice IA (or a Crit. A&B Design assignment for the MYP folk), and you have a huge game coming up in two days. As you are caught in this dilemma of choosing between sports and a 7, you hear about your friends doing Robotics and having a great time designing their machines. At this point, you think to yourself, was trying out for the team the wrong decision? Would I have had more fun in robotics?

Sure, the fear of missing out can cause you to want to join a bunch of different clubs, sports, and events. However, studies have shown that it is impossible for humans to multi-task, and we are actually much more effective and efficient at our work if we focus on one thing at a time.

The personal kanban method is a perfect way to balance your desire for “more stuff” and the time spent on each of your tasks. You can do this on a plethora of different platforms, ranging from a whiteboard to apps like Notion. First, you make three columns: Prepared to Do, Ongoing, and Done. Then, you create a list of tasks in each column, following the categories. By making sure that you only have a maximum of 3 tasks in the Ongoing column, you will be able to focus on completing tasks rather than adding more.

Instead of being afraid that you are missing out on something, shift your mindset to embrace the joy of missing out. Take time to focus on yourself, and your own goals, and persevere with the decisions you have made. Forget FOMO, just JOMO.