It can be challenging to strive for the perfect high school experience that you see in movies. Kids have lots of work that stops them from experiencing their ideal high school dream. The idea of huge parties and friend group gatherings can all become a blur when you have hours and hours of homework each night. Since being in high school, I have found that creating time for my friends and family has gotten a lot harder. It took me a while to realize that juggling my social and academic life was a necessary balance I needed to learn how to make. I have been able to maintain a healthy social and academic life by having a planner, managing my time appropriately, and breaking down tasks for myself.
Getting a planner helped me find the perfect balance between school and my social life. My planner includes certain dates, homework, dinner plans, etc. As a tennis player, I tend to spend hours a night trying to cram in work due to late practices. Having a planner has made my workload after practice much more manageable. It is the key to a more organized life. Having a planner completely changed my work ethic. I carry it with me throughout the school week and write down all the homework I am assigned each night. This way when I get home I can visually see what I have to get done and when.
Not only does physically writing down my tasks help me remember them, but it also reduces my stress levels. This is because I become aware of what needs to be done in advance, which leaves me time throughout the day and on weekends to be social. When I don’t write my tasks down I notice myself becoming very tense throughout the week, which has happened many times before. Without my planner, my work would continue to pile up, which would force me to complete it on the weekends and would prevent me from socializing with my friends. I try my best to continue to use my planner to help myself mentally.
Another key to juggling my social and academic life is managing my time appropriately. Time management is essential because scheduling after-school activities and studying for a huge test can all be extremely stressful. It is not easy to find ways to manage time, but by setting goals for myself I have seen a huge improvement in my work and time management. Setting both long-term goals and short-term goals for myself is so crucial for me in order to stay focused throughout the school year.
Another major way I have dealt with time management is by escaping multi-tasking. Multitasking can be super time-consuming and I wasn’t able to recognize that until recently. I began to notice this habit of mine when I would try to eat my dinner while continuing to do my homework. However, it became a bad habit and wasn’t beneficial to me or my work. It made me rush my homework and projects to the point where my work was not the quality it should be. Another way I multitasked was when I would be on the phone with my friends while doing work. It became super hard for me to get my work done and be able to connect with my friends. I noticed that finishing my work before calling any of my friends was the best option for me. This way I could actually talk to them and enjoy socializing. I soon realized that doing my work well is better than just getting it done. These small changes helped me manage my time and allowed me to get my work done more efficiently so that I had more than enough time on the weekends to see my friends.
A different method for effectively managing my time is to break down tasks, which helps me maintain a social life outside of school work. I have learned that setting times for myself to get my work done and take breaks has led me to find balance in my school work and social life. I will usually do my work in 45-minute increments. I will then take a 20-25 minute break to Facetime my friends. A time when this process did not work for me was when I stayed on the phone with my friend way over the amount of time I set for myself. This led me to feel overstressed and anxious. I am the type of person who can stay on the phone with my friends all day so having self-discipline has definitely helped me to stay on task and focus. Setting these times for myself is important so that I am able to talk to my friends and still get my work done.
Finding that perfect balance between school work and friends was never easy for me, but finding ways that help me make time for myself and others is so important. While high school is challenging and may never live up to the perfect high school idea you have always had, being able to make time for the ones you love the most is essential.
