High School can be a busy time as you try to maintain your grades, participate in extracurricular activities, apply to colleges and earn scholarships. All these activities can be stressful to your body and can affect your productivity during your day. Navigating through a busy schedule during High School efficiently will help you be successful.
To start off with keeping a calendar/planner will help you stay organized and look over the week to see what assignments you have to turn in and any extracurricular activities that you have planned out. In addition to keeping a calendar, making a to-do-list for each day will help you keep a goal for the day. Seeing what needs to be done will help you not miss anything and stay productive throughout the day.
A list will help you see what responsibilities you need to prioritize. Instead of playing video games or watching Netflix; catch up on your homework, study for a test, or even participate in extracurricular activities.For example, when watching TV put a 15 minute timer. This will help you see how much time has gone by. This 15 minute timer can be used as a break from homework and a relaxation method for your body.
Many students are afraid of failing a task that needs to be completed so this causes many students to procrastinate more often. Getting ahead of assignments and being prepared will help decrease your fear. If you know something is due from a week make sure you work on the assignment days leading up to the due date. Keeping the assignment pending until the last minute will just result in more stress and anxiety, and increase of procrastination throughout your high school years. Studies throughout the years have supported procransition can also be affected biologically. People with a tendency to procrastinate had a bigger amygdala, which is the section of that that deals with emotions.
Taking time off, such as 20 minutes between doing your homework, will help you relax and stay motivated. In the 20 minutes of break, don’t go on your phone. Instead, walk around your house or take a breath of air (especially during this pandemic). As this pandemic has affected many immune systems, exercising and going outside near your house can help contribute to a healthy lifestyle (but make sure to socially distance!). Staying inside your house all day can affect your productivity throughout your lifetime. Being in the same place each day and not moving around to a different location to do your work, will allow your body to get used to a certain location. As virtual classes are taking place, many students are in their room and doing homework and attending classes from their desk each day. Moving to a different location will help your body be motivated during school. For instance, changing up your location will show a big outcome in your standardized tests. As these standardized tests are taken at school or at a different location from your home, your brain and body may not be used to working in a new location resulting in scoring poorly. Moving around can also help blood flow throughout your body, sitting all day can just lead into laziness and less productivity causing you to procrastinate.
As concepts in your class may be difficult to understand or comprehend, taking help from someone can improve your understanding and your grades. Look around in your school or in your community that can help with your busy schedule such as tutoring services, preferably people that have taken the class that you are struggling in. Having someone tutor you on a subject they have already learned versus someone who hasn’t will have a better understanding on what exactly they need to help you in and how the material is taught. Using resources such as tutors.com, varsitytutors.com, or even tutoring services in libraries near you can provide help through topics you are struggling with in school.
Lastly but not least, if you work during high school, make sure your job is flexible around your school hours and make sure your job doesn't interfere with your school work. For example, on average every student is in school for about 7 hours each day. If your job consists of working during those 7 hours you will end up missing a lot of school throughout the year and can affect your grades and your understanding of each class. Vice versa, if your work takes up time after school hours till you sleep you may not have time to do your homework or study for tests/quizzes. Making sure your work and school don’t conflict each other is a key factor. Maintaining your classes and extracurricular activities and staying organized can help you navigate through a busy schedule in high school.
- By Rohitha Chiguru
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