At university, exam week is treated as an exceptional period. At work, it is still a week when people need shifts covered. I asked for fewer hours and felt guilty. Then a colleague became unavailable, and I accepted more than I had planned. Every individual decision looked manageable. Together they produced a version of me studying from morning until work and returning too tired to remember what I had read. The lesson was not better productivity. It was that I need to disappoint somebody earlier. A manager, a group member, or the part of myself that thinks every request is proof of reliability. Work is not an extracurricular activity for me. Neither is university. Balancing them means admitting that both cannot receive the best version of me every week.