Are you feeling overwhelmed trying to juggle your studies with sports practice, music lessons, or other activities? You’re not alone. While extracurricular activities are great for making friends and developing new skills, it can be tricky to find the right balance between these activities and your academic ones. Let’s explore some practical ways you can manage your time and energy effectively.
Why are extracurricular activities important?
While keeping up with your studies is important of course, activities outside the classroom can add so much value to your high school experience too. Being involved in extracurricular activities can:
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Help you discover new interests and talents
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Build valuable skills for your future
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Look great on job and university applications
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Provide a fun break from studying
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Help you make new friends
But it’s important to find the right balance so that neither your grades nor your activities suffer.
Tips for balancing academic and extracurricular activities
The key to balancing academic and extracurricular activities is smart time management, so here are our top tips for making it work.
Start with your studies
This might not come as a surprise, but your school work should be your foundation. Make sure things like assignments and exams have top priority – then, you can plan your other activities around them.
Choose activities you truly enjoy
Try and avoid joining clubs or doing certain activities just because they’ll look good on your resume. Pick things that actually interest you – you’ll be more motivated to make time for them, get more out of the experience, and just enjoy yourself more too.
Be realistic about your commitments
Like it or not, there are only so many hours in each day. So if you want to add more activities to your calendar, consider:
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How many hours per week each activity requires
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Travel time to and from activities
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Whether activities clash with other commitments
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Busy periods at school (like exam time)
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Time off to rest and recharge
Learn to prioritise
You don’t have to do everything! It’s better to fully commit to a few activities than to spread yourself too thin across many. And if you’re feeling overwhelmed, it’s totally okay to step back from some commitments – your health and wellbeing always comes first.
Creating a schedule that works
Having a clear schedule is one of the best ways to make sure you can fit everything in without getting stressed. Here’s a simple way to put together a calendar to keep track of your commitments:
Use a planner
Writing everything down is a great way to help you stay on track each day. There are some great planning apps out there to help you put your schedule together, but good old-fashioned pen and paper does the trick just as well.
List all your commitments
Whatever method you use, your first step is to work out what all your commitments are and how long they take. Include things like:
Block out your time
Once you know what you’re doing, you just need to work out when to do it! In your planner, allocate specific times each day or week for each activity and commitment.
If you find some of them overlap or you don’t have enough time in your week for all of them, go back and work out what should take top priority, and schedule it first.
And don’t forget to leave some gaps in your schedule for unexpected events or tasks that take longer than planned – plus that all-important time for socialising, hobbies, and rest.
Look after yourself
While balancing everything is important, your health and wellbeing should always come first. Remember that you can’t pour from an empty cup. Make sure you:
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, don’t be afraid to talk to your teachers, family, or school counsellor. They can help you work out a better balance.
Source: Study Work Grow
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