How to balance school and social life
Balancing schoolwork and extracurricular activities can be challenging for students. You will sometimes sink too much into other activities and forget your schoolwork or be a bookworm and fall behind in social life. This happens to many students but if you know how to balance everything, things may start looking less complicated for you. Maintaining this balance is very important because it can affect your academic performance in school. Sometimes those students who perform excellently are able to obtain such great balance because they know how to maintain an optimal balance between studies and social life. They know when to go to class and when to play football, when to revise for their exams and when to join others for music festival rehearsals. Succeeding in your academics does not only come from studying books and attending classes; extracurricularactivates also play a major rolein it. Below are ways to balance schoolwork and extracurricular activities to help you have an equal share of both so that you can succeed in school and in your career.
1. Prioritize
This is one of the most effective ways of striking that balance between your schoolwork and social life. Have a list of everything you need to do from the most important to the least important and create a schedule for when each task shouldbe performed. The highest priority will definitely be given to school projects, tasks, homework, and assignments. Remember your education is more important than anything else, so be sure to put these on top of the list. After academics, you can now add extracurricular activities. These are more important and that is why your school added them to the curriculum in the first place. If you are a music student for instance, and there are some music festival rehearsals going on, add this to the schedule. Who knows; you may learn a thing or two about vocals. Once you have added the extracurricular activities to the schedule, it’s now time to accommodate social commitments and loved ones. This should come last on your to-do list. Of course, it is nice to relax and spend time with your friends, but if your assignments or extracurricular activities are demanding more time and attention, you have to attend to these first before checking out on your friends, and if they are the good type, they should understand.
2. Respect deadlines
We are in the 21st century and times when technology has advanced good enough that we can only blame ourselves for not being on top of things. You have a tablet or smartphone. Make use of it. Don’t let it just be for chatting with friends, making calls, or watching videos online. Use it toset constant reminders for tasks that are almost due. For example, if you have a project that you need to submit in a week’s time, you can set a reminder such that you will receive a notification 5 days and 2 days to the deadline. This will help you complete your work promptly and give you enough time to review it before you send it in for marking. But if you have too many assignments and you are afraid that you may miss the deadline because you probably don’t have enough time to work on each, you can seek help elsewhere. Thanks to the internet, today we have hundreds of college homework help service providers that you can contact for quality academic writing. All you got to do is submit your assignment requirements, pay a small fee, and mention when you need the document to be sent back to you. Some sites, like this one, will even allow you to choose a writer who is most qualified to handle your specific task. Hiring a professional to do the project for you will give you enough time to take care of the rest of the assignments. And since this is a person who is qualified for the job, your chances of even scoring higher are much greater. How to balance school and social life can be easy peasy if youhave a dedicated diary that keeps you up-to-date with deadlines. You are able to plan time better saving you from last minute rush.
3. Manage your time properly
Time management is an important skill both in campus and at work. If you want to maintain a good balance between school and extracurricular activities, then you must know how to manage your time properly. For starters, don’t spend too much time on one task, assignment, or subject. This hardly brings out the desired results and in most cases the rest of the tasks suffer. Let’s take an example of a student who is studying 10 modules. If he puts more effort on only one subject, chances are he will shine on only this subject and fail the rest. It is important to assign enough time on each task on your plate depending on how important it is. Use alarm clocks so that you don’t spend more time than necessary on a task. Invest reasonable time on each task so that at the end of it all, all tasks will be attended to efficiently. Speaking of, complex tasks and activities should be given a little more time than simple ones. That way, you won’t feel rushed to complete them and thus, you will make less mistakes.
4. Live healthy
To manage the perfect balance between your academic workload and extracurricularactivities, you need to adapt a healthy lifestyle. This means eating a healthy diet, working out, and having enough sleep. Healthy diet is important especially when you are going to undertake a complex task. You want to have the energy required by both your body and your brain. Think about when you are going to sit for your exams or starting your assignment for instance; your brain needs to function properly for you to think effectively and this will not be possible without proper diet. Eat food that is rich in omega 3 as this is component is shown to help the brain to work optimally and boost memory. Top up with fresh fruits. Stay away from processed sugars as possible. Take a heavy breakfast before you start the day so that your body can stay energized to keep working. Don’t give it a chance to feel tired and weak. Eating poor diet can result to fatigue making you lazy. Don’t forget to workout out too. You can take a thirty minutes run in the morning before heading out. Similarly, instead of driving to school, you can use a bike so you can work your legs out. Make sure to have enough sleep too. Avoid making evening plans when you have early morning classes. This will enable you to go to bed early and have adequate sleepso you don’t feel so fatigued when you get up in the morning.
5. Evaluate your goals
Sometimes, extracurricular activities may be more important than whatyou are studying. If you feel your course is taking more of your time than it should, know how to manage it smartly and effectively. For example, if you love fashion design and have been designing clothes during your free time and selling to the rest of the students, you may consider getting more serious about your side business that what you are currently studying. Let’s say you enrolled in IT and this has nothing to do with your side business; Why don’t you consider dropping the course and taking fashion classes? Selecting a course you love will make you feel positive about studying it. You will find yourself working harder, completing your assignments on time and always creating time for the course because you want to hone your extracurricular skill, which is fashion design.
6. Don’t take too many roles
It is important to balance school and extracurricular activities but it is also essential to know when you are getting too involved. You want to be the football captain, take the lead in drama club, and be the best volleyball player in your school – yet you still want to remain top of your class. While this may make your college life more spicy, you may start lagging behind in your class. It is good to undertake extra activities to make life more fun but just do nottake on too many positions because you will have a lotof obligations to meet, and eventually you will forget about your schoolwork. Get involved in only what you can handle. Do not do something because your classmates did it and succeeded. Pick themost beneficial extracurricular activity and stick to it. That way, you will be able to manage your time effectively and know when to do your class work so you never miss important deadlines.