Switched-On Magazine

When you're in school, there is no other challenge bigger  than time management. Whatever you plan to do, time management is a crucial element that ensures your successes. Whether you are a college student who has a side job, or a high-school student who plans to study for standardized testing and applying to college, if you cannot manage how you allocate your time, you cannot do well. Unfortunately, nobody explained how important this was for me, so I learned it the hard way. 

When we are younger, we are not sure about our future directions. Thus, we tend to jump on board of everything – clubs, different classes, sports, etc. Then as time passes and we lose interest in those clubs, or the coursework of our classes start to pile up, we end up not being able to study and participate in those extracurricular activities properly. Then other deadlines start to creep on us and we panic.

It's always easier to start off your school year with clear objectives. Write down five goals you want to accomplish this year, or five commitments you want to make and stick to your plan. This plan will help you to avoid overestimating yourself – including your health and ability to function properly without enough sleep, but it also helps you to create a balance life. Many students, especially overachievers, tend to overlook life balance, just to suffer later. 

Another life component that younger people also overlook is health. Yes, I understand that you are young (and so am I) and the prospect of you getting seriously sick is distant. But health issues also accumulate over the years, and your sleeping and eating habits today are also parts of the equation. You might prefer to cramp before the exams or pull all-nighter for every test but that doesn't work in the long run. Having a stable sleeping and eating schedules will take all those stresses away, and you will also be able to do well in school. 

I know you can come up with a list of excuses right now to procrastinate and not manage your time efficiently. But as someone who used to completely ignore all those rules, I would like to suggest that if you are a procrastinator like me, a plan to manage your time effectively is the first thing you should do for every school year.