So let's take a few moments to talk about managing the time you do have. We all have the same 24-hour day, unless I've got some extraterrestrial viewers who are sneaking under my radar. (Joke.) Chances are that you're going to spend a solid 7 to 10 hours of it in Dream Land. That's perfectly normal for growing school-children and teenagers, and it can actually negatively impact your health if you're getting any less. Most days, you spend six to eight hours at school as well. Then there's getting to and from school, eating dinner, taking showers, doing homework, studying for tests, doing community service, attending extracurricular activities, spending time with your family, doing chores, and sooo much more.
Many students lead busy lives, but you shouldn't have to spend your life in a state of super-stress or let your grades suffer because of it. If you take a look at your schedule and spend a day recording every action, you might just find that a lot of your time is wasted. If you're disorganized and you spend ten minutes scrambling to find your homework every morning, another ten minutes fruitlessly pawing at the mess in your book bag to find your assignments, and yet another ten minutes searching for the proper supplies to complete said assignments, you've just wasted a half-hour on something that could have taken you seven minutes.
Tip #1: Get organized. Spend a weekend sorting out all your school supplies and labeling everything. I have a drawer in my desk for pens, one for pencils, another for highlighters, yet another for erasers, still another for Post-It's, and a final one for paper clips and other odds and ends. I know where my paper is, I always have a calculator handy, I keep a pencil and a pad out at all times to jot down creative ideas (or, more often, a note to feed my dogs), and I have four labeled folders for all of my various day-to-day activities. (I also have a stethoscope so I can walk around saying, "Don't worry, I'm a Doctor," all the time. But that's mostly irrelevant.)
You might also find that you waste a lot of time on social media and on your phone. You'll log onto Facebook to check on your farm for 'just five minutes' and you'll look up fifty minutes later regretting it.
Tip #2: Keep your phone out of arm's reach, and put it on silent. Don't turn it off entirely, because you'll still want it handy in case of an emergency, but out of sight truly is out of mind, and you want to get rid of as many distractions as possible.
Tip #3: Download an application that will block distracting sites like Facebook, Twitter, and whatever else you crazy kids are using these days. You don't want to shut off the Internet entirely because you'll probably need it for research, but it'll be handy to turn off the super-distracting parts of it for a set period of time.
Now that you're distraction-free, you need a plan.
Tip #4: Budget your time. My planner used to look something like this:
- Geometry Homework (20)
- Physics Worksheet (15)
- History Essay - due Friday (60)
- Print out project for art (5)
- Read short story for English - due Thursday (30)
Those little numbers in the parentheses were my estimates of how long each task would take me. What you're not seeing is the class I used to mark with (120)'s three times a week, but that's besides the point. I used to star things, too, and I generally used to arrange things in order of importance. High school is a little more flexible than middle school in that your teachers will often assign you things that aren't due for a few days, so if I was having an off day I might skip the History essay, skim the English reading, and draw an arrow into the next day for both of those tasks. This really kept me on course because once I got the hang of estimating the time something would take me, I could use that to guide me back into my work if I ever found that I'd started to daydream and still hadn't finished my math work after a half an hour.
Tip #5: Set up a time to do your homework, and stick to it if at all possible. I used to come home, get changed into something more comfortable, have a snack, and dig into that homework right away. That's not always possible if you have ballet at five on Tuesdays on Thursdays and Student Government right after school on Wednesdays, but try your best. And if you're really pressed for time, make use of your commute. If you find the unicorn known as a Quiet Bus at Rush Hour, start on your English homework. Make your Time Budget while you're waiting for the Student Gov meeting to start. See if you can start a study group with your friends at lunch to get some science work done.
So, you've got regular homework down, but what about studying?
Tip #6: Spend ten to fifteen minutes reviewing your notes every day. This will help you actually learn the information rather than cramming it all into your head the night before test day, and it'll significantly cut down on the time you need to spend studying the days before a quiz. It can also help you identify your weak points so you can arrange for a quick conference with your teacher during class.
Tip #7: Don't let school consume you. This might seem like a shocking statement coming from an educational blog, but it's the truth. You still need to spend time with your family and friends. You still need to get outside and play. You still need some down time when you're not worrying about the next report card. My co-partner and I both believe that learning is more important than grades. However, high-stakes testing grows more stressful for both teachers and their students each year, and sometimes the real purpose of school and the joy of learning get lost in the pressure to perform. Grades are important, yes, but what good do they do you if you need to sacrifice spending time with your family to study? What good are grades if every bit of curiosity and wonder at the marvels of the world around you has been sapped away by the pressure to be perfect?
I'll leave you with this little piece of advice my mother used to give me before every test: Do your best. She always told me that it wouldn't matter if I brought home a 93 or a 39, as long as I'd tried my best, because your best is all you can be.
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