By Lenaia Powell
Every high school student can relate to the struggle of managing time, but some students have it particularly tough; balancing extracurriculars, AP classes, and a job. So how does one manage it all? Numerous upperclassmen were able to share some insight on how they juggle their seemingly countless activities.
“I’d say I probably spend a good 10 hours at school every day,” says Victoria Vanness, a busy junior who is involved in Mu Alpha Theta, Marching Band, and Beta Club; all while taking five AP classes.
“I really just get the stuff that I have to do done for extracurricular activities first, and then I go home and knock out the homework, and then just spend time with my family and do stuff like that. It’s just kind of a schedule that I have set up.”
In addition to a multitude of extracurriculars and heavy course loads, another junior, Autumn Hall, takes on a job as well. Luckily, she has found a way to still get everything done and manage her time accordingly.
“I play lacrosse on the varsity team, I’m in Beta [Club], NHS, JCC, SGA, I’m Vice President of Latin Club, I’m in art club, and that’s really it. I don’t know, I think I forgot one or two.” With so many extra activities and a job at Panera Bread, It is a surprise that Autumn still maintains good grades in her classes.
“I mainly have A’s and I only have one B… I put my first classes as my first priority and then my last classes [after],” said Autumn, explaining the way she handles the workload.
“I work mainly now on the weekends since now I have lacrosse during the school week, but I usually work around 23 hours, and then I’ll come home and do homework,” she said, which is a smart way to handle a job and other activities.
Another student, a senior who is involved in a multitude of clubs, Mackenzie Ratledge, brought up some other points to be taken into account when involved in so many outside clubs.
“I’m involved in SGA, National Art Honor Society, Volleyball and I work at Chick-fil-a,” said Mackenzie, so her schedule is fairly overloaded as well.
“I usually stay up late and finish whatever I have to do, so, no, I have good grades.” In response to how commitment to other things affects her grades.
Hearing this, I realized that being so involved could result in lack of sleep.
*smiles*, “Um, probably, yeah…”, she said, confirming this thought.
For underclassmen wondering what it’s like to take on so many tasks at one time, here you are. But there are tips you can follow to make managing your time easier, which all three interviewees were willing to share.
“My advice would just be to… don’t spend time after school like hanging out with your friends if you know you have a lot of homework; like if you know that you have an assignment due Monday and it’s Friday, don’t wait ‘til Sunday night ‘cause you wanna spend time with your friends on Saturday. Knock out the homework. Get it done.” input Victoria.
As someone who struggles with managing my time, I can confirm this, and should probably learn from it.
“To keep a planner so that you don’t forget to do certain things and so that you’re always on top of your stuff,” said Autumn.
“Know what kind of hours your job is expecting you to work, and like, how flexible they are with your schedule, especially if you play sports, make sure that when you go for your job interview that they know that you play sports and stuff like that. A lot of places like Chick-fil-a, they’ll work with you on your sports schedule and schedule you for the days you don’t have practice and whatnot, but you have to make sure that whatever job you’re going into does do that because not all jobs do that,” says Mackenzie.
Moral of the article: maybe I was not the best person to write an article on time management. However, the students interviewed are clearly successful despite the overwhelming amount of work they need to do, so you should probably take a lesson from them instead.