Balance and Why it's RIDICULOUSLY Important!!

Now, you may be asking yourself, "What does a sixteen year old high schooler know about balance?" Well, school is not the only thing I do. I have loads of extra-curricular activities and it's easy to feel overwhelmed.

Not only do I have 7 hours of school every weekday, but I also have sports practice 4 times a week for roughly 2 hours. I also have at least an hour of homework a night, and I'm currently on a leadership team that is taking a trip to China in March. Which means I need to do two book reports before then and a project afterwords to get credit. As my school elective, I've chosen theatre, because I love it. We're performing Beauty and the Beast, and I'm Mrs. Potts. A character with multiple solos and plenty of lines. I often stay after to work on the solos. Because of this class and who I am, I'm expected to perform at this Fine Arts competition as well. I'll be competing in choral speaking and expository poetry writing. Normally Id be doing a monologue as well, but didn't want to put too much pressure on myself. On Wednesday's I voluntarily peer tutor a 6th grade student in math, which needs some, although fairly minimal, outside preparation. I'm also in National Honor Society and a student service club. Somehow, outside all of that, I sometimes eat, sleep, and shower, and every once in a while post on my blog and hangout with my friends.

So if you couldn't tell, I really need to be good at balance, because of how involved I am at school. A big part of being balanced, is being good at time management. I am definitely a person who wants to get everything done immediately, at least for the most part. Especially homework, the last thing I want to do after getting home around 6 pm, is do homework. So I do as much as I can in school, in class, at lunch, any free time available (not that I have much of that at school).

TIME MANAGEMENT

Knowing how to manage your time properly will save you. Especially if you're busy. So for examples I'm going to use what I know. So for third hour, my teacher doesn't mind if we work during the beginning of class, and the class that gives me most of my homework is second hour. It's really convenient and doesn't work some days, but most it does. Even if it's doing the whole assignment in his class or just finishing a few up. 

PLANNING

I have 2 main calendars, a planner I keep on me and a big desk calendar. I also make like a billion to do lists throughout the day. I am terrible at remembering what I'm supposed to be doing or what an assignment is or what day I stay after in theatre. I have to write it down and plan it out. That way you won't be overbooking yourself. Although, I'm currently in the middle of a slight overbooking situation. I'm sure it'll workout, but I'm supposed to be doing three different things at the same time today. I have a choral speaking practice, a leadership China trip meeting, and peer tutoring. It's important to know when this kind of thing could happen, how to stop it, and, of course, how to prevent it.

ACCOUNTABILITY

You need to hold yourself accountable to actually do what you're supposed to, when you're supposed to. You can manage your time amazingly, plan it down to the very last second, but if you don't follow through with that plan, it's all for naught. Sometimes, you just have to push through, knowing you'll feel better when it's over with. I am the type to try to get everything done as soon as possible, but I still find myself in moods where I don't want to do anything. That might mean that you need to take more breaks, schedule in some time for Netflix binging. All work and no play isn't good for you, and all play and no work isn't sustainable. It's all about the balance.

BREAKS

You need to have some fun too! Do not misunderstand this, you need work, but you definitely need to give yourself a break. Scientific studies show that when you study, every little while you should take a small break. Even if that's just walking outside for a moment, just to get fresh air. Have some free time, even if it's just time where you get to sit down and not worry about what you're gonna do next or what's the next thing you're responsible for. Take a break, eat some fruit, and then get ready to jump back in. 

PRIORITY

Sometimes you won’t be able to do it all. So you need to think about which is most important and which can be done at a later time. Like if you have a test that you have to do really well on and also homework that isn’t due till last hour the next day, prioritize the test studying and do the homework as much as you can throughout the day. It’s okay to not be able to do it all, we can’t all be Wonder Woman. Although that would be quite the idyllic world!