We all know that one situation when you are sitting at your desk one night, frustrated with your homework. It’s 10:00 p.m. and you are catching up on work since you have been absent, plus you still need to study for two tests tomorrow. After school later today, you have the biggest game of the season that you need to focus on. To top it off, your friends invited you to go out to dinner with them and the team after the game. It’s all getting too much and you just feel like you’re gonna explode, and you want to take a break and step away from the world. . .

Have you ever heard people telling you to take breaks and not to overwork yourself, but you still need to get a lot of stuff done? Well, then you clicked on the right article to read. Today I’m going to give you my best tips to manage your time between school, sports, and your social life. I’m going to try and help you so that you don’t get stressed as easily and get overwhelmed. One thing that I do a lot is to set the weekends for social time with my friends. Of course, if I happen to finish all of my work one day, I can hang out with someone, but I make sure to get all of my homework done on Friday so that I can have lots of free time! From my knowledge due to personal experience, I know that many sports will practice for at least an hour, five days a week. Of course, that’s really fun to do, but lots of parents and the school will not allow their kids to continue to play that sport if they are not obtaining the preferred grade average. So I recommend setting time aside for at least an hour every day to study and do homework.

One thing that I found really helped me during virtual school is putting away all distractions. While working, I recommend that you put your phone in a different room, with your parents or off in a drawer. I know that this may seem useless, but as everyone says “out of sight, out of mind.” I truly believe this tactic works a lot. A third tip I have for you all is to take lots of breaks. You can surely work for around 20-30 minutes, and then take a 5-10 minute break! You can go for a walk, talk to your family, or play with your pet. I think this is important to refresh the brain and make sure that you don’t burn out. You can also go on YouTube and search for “Real-Time Study With Me.” You actually “study” alongside a video of someone studying! This may seem like it’s not going to benefit you in any way, but it’s a really good way to make sure you take breaks. Also, it’s nice to have some background noise that’s not too distracting.

One last tip I have for time management (especially with your schoolwork) is working with a friend, or getting a study group! I feel as though you get a lot done when you’re working with one of your friends, because you know as soon as you finish, you can hang out. I had done this over 2021 when we were virtual, and it really helped! As long as you’re not fooling around too much and actually getting what needs to be done accomplished. Your friend can help make it a little more fun, and maybe you will understand things more now that someone else is teaching them to you! Last but not least, you will be more likely to actually complete your studying and homework. If you are doing it by yourself, it’s easy to just forget about it and tell yourself you will do it later. But if you are a part of a study group, then you have to meet up with someone and you can’t procrastinate.

Now, let me try and help you with stressful situations. Whenever you are feeling overwhelmed, it’s important to just take a minute and relax. Sit down, close your eyes, and take a few deep breaths. Ask yourself, “Have I overworked myself? When was the last time I took a break? Am I staying on track? What is it that I am working so hard for?” I recommend taking a second to just relax and let the overwhelming thoughts clear your brain. As I said before, you can take a walk to clear your head and get fresh air. When you have a lot to get done, you just want to keep going, But no matter how stressed you are, just remember it will all work itself out. The last tip I want to inform you about is to-do lists. These help SO much, and I use them all the time. Writing everything down can clear your brain, and if you write them on sticky notes, when you rip them off you will feel so accomplished.

Everyone struggles with time management, and it’s easy to get distracted on your phone. When you’re thinking how you have to do this, and then that, and then this, just take a breath. It can be a stressful world, but we just need to take a step back and breathe. I hope some of my tips about time management helped you and relaxed you!