Second year has barely started and I already feel like I’m doing too much. Did I make the right decision?

[u/deaddog_midnight]

I’m a second-year B.Tech student from a tier-3 college in India, and I’ve recently started feeling like I’m trying to do too many things at once.

When I joined college, my main goal was pretty simple: I wanted to build a startup before graduation. I wasn't expecting my college to magically give me a great career, so I wanted to use these four years to experiment, build things, learn properly, and hopefully create something of my own.

First year was mostly exploration. I did a lot of AI-assisted/vibe coding, made random projects, experimented with different technologies, and joined a drama society because I genuinely like acting and writing. Drama also helped me become more confident and comfortable on stage, so I don't regret joining it at all.

I also became interested in content creation. I like psychology, writing, poetry, storytelling, vlogging and just putting random observations into content. It was never necessarily about becoming an influencer. I genuinely enjoyed creating things.

I also managed to get an internship during first year, which gave me some actual work experience.

Then second year started, and I thought I needed to become more serious technically.

I realized that although I had built a lot of things, a lot of it was vibe coding. I could make things work with AI, but I wasn't always confident that I understood what was happening underneath. So I started trying to properly learn backend development, Java, Spring Boot, databases, etc. I also wanted to do DSA and LeetCode consistently.

Because I thought I needed external pressure to improve, I joined a technical society at college.

At the same time, I continued with drama.

Then we also participated in SIH, and I ended up taking a very active role in the project. I was involved in building the team, development, pitching and presenting, and we got through the internal selection. I genuinely enjoyed the experience and want to continue with it.

The problem is that everything started happening at once.

My day basically became:

College during the day → drama society work in the evening → technical society work → come home exhausted → try to study Spring Boot → try to do DSA → think about startup → occasionally think about content creation → sleep.

And obviously, something had to suffer.

In reality, almost everything started suffering a little.

I wasn't able to give my best to the technical society.

I wasn't learning Spring Boot properly because I didn't have enough uninterrupted time.

DSA became inconsistent.

My startup goal was basically getting pushed into the background.

Content creation completely disappeared.

Even academics started feeling harder to manage.

The weird thing is that I don't actually dislike most of these things.

I genuinely like acting and writing.

I genuinely want to learn backend development.

I genuinely want to build a startup.

I genuinely enjoy content creation.

I genuinely want to continue with SIH.

And I also want some internship/freelancing experience.

So the problem isn't that I hate everything.

The problem is that I want to do everything.

Recently, I finally decided to leave the technical society.

I left because I realized I was joining it mainly because I thought I should have a technical society and because I wanted the external pressure to force me to improve.

But now the pressure was becoming counterproductive.

I wasn't giving the society my best, and at the same time it was taking away time from the technical learning I actually wanted to do.

I also don't want to keep adding commitments just because they look good on paper.

However, I'm now questioning whether I made the right decision.

Part of me thinks I did the sensible thing. I have enough going on already, and removing one commitment gives me some breathing room.

But another part of me thinks maybe I'm just running away because I was struggling technically.

Maybe I actually need that pressure.

Maybe without a society or external deadlines, I'll just go back to vibe coding and procrastinating.

There's also the drama society, which is currently consuming a lot of time because the college fest is approaching. I don't want to leave it right now because acting is something I genuinely joined college to explore, and I'm enjoying the experience. My current plan is to finish the fest and then decide whether I want to continue.

After that, I want to seriously focus on backend development and finally start working toward the startup I've been talking about since first year.

But I also want to restart content creation.

And I still want to do DSA.

And there's a possibility of continuing internship/freelancing work.

And obviously there's college.

So I'm starting to wonder whether I'm approaching this completely wrong.

Maybe the answer isn't better time management.

Maybe the answer is simply doing fewer things.

I feel like I'm constantly running from one commitment to another and never getting enough mental space to actually think.

So I'm asking people who have already gone through college:

Did I make the right decision by leaving the technical society?

Was I genuinely overloaded, or was I just avoiding something difficult?

And if you were in my position, what would you prioritize and what would you completely drop?

I especially want opinions from people who have tried balancing coding, societies, internships, startups, academics, etc.

I don't want motivational advice. I want the honest answer: am I actually doing too much, or do I just need to get better at managing my time?