Over the past four years, I have struggled to manage my time well. There are only 24 hours in the day, which never seems like enough time to get all my tasks completed. Typically, I leave my house at seven in the morning, and I don’t get home until nine at night. Although this may sound impressive and gives the impression that I am very productive, I can’t find a good balance between work, school, clubs, sports, and hanging out with friends.
The first main reason for my struggles this year is school. Despite the fact that I do take some difficult classes, I haven’t had a problem with getting all my work done until recently. Every morning, I wake up with a mental list in mind that has at least four or five assignments that I need to get done for class that day. This starts my day off filled with anxiety that I won’t get all my assignments done.
Normally, everyday after school I have a club meeting or activity to attend. This takes up at least thirty minutes of my time after school, which is crunched enough already. Additionally, I have practice that goes from 2:50 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
It’s safe to say that this year especially my sport, cross country, is suffering the most from my schedule. I have less time to go to practice everyday and my performance decreases every week. I love running and ever since freshman year, it’s my one constant stream of happiness. My teammates make the biggest difference in this too. As a senior, it’s my last year running competitively, which makes my absence from the one thing I love the most detrimental for my mental health.
At this point in my day, it’s usually the time where I either go home or go to work. I am blessed with a very easy job for the most part. I’m extremely social, which helps since the main part of my job is talking and helping people. Usually, I work on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Sundays. On weekdays, I can get a sizable amount of my homework done while at work. However, some days I feel so exhausted from lack of sleep and the fact that I’m going 24/7 that I can’t bring myself to even look in the direction of my homework.
After work, I’m finally home. I eat dinner around 9 p.m., shower, and finish up the last bit of homework I have.
My sleep deprivation is the worst it’s ever been. I don’t think I’ve slept through the night since school started. It’s getting better as my schedule starts to lighten up, but I still find myself falling asleep and waking up a few hours later. This leaves me with around five hours of total sleep on a good night.
In total, this may sound like a list of complaints. I understand that in a sense I am complaining. I’m very lucky to have time management as one of the main problems in my life in comparison to other people’s. Although, I haven’t discovered the secret to making my life perfect, I have found new ways to take things off my plate.
On days when I know I have multiple activities after school and work at 4 p.m, I try to choose the activity that requires my attention the most that day. Now this may sound harsh, I find it’s easier to rank the importance of my clubs and extracurriculars.
Cross country is my main priority. So, I try to allot as much time to be at practice as possible. This may warrant not going to a different activity, so I can be at practice. The key to doing this with my routine is looking at the bigger picture to see what club, sport, or activity has a greater impact in the next two weeks.
Another aspect I’m attempting to fix is my sleep and reading habits. Many people, including my own doctor, suggest reading before bed. This helps to feed my reading addiction and eliminates my desire to stay up watching TikTok or TV all night.
These small changes to my routine and mindset help me in more ways than one. In the past three weeks, my stress/anxiety has decreased tremendously. I’m less nervous about how many things I need to complete during the day ahead. My personal anecdote is an example of how small changes to routines or habits can provide balance to life.