How to Balance School and Sports
Playing sports takes up a huge chunk of time such as driving to and back from trainings, practicing for a few hours, and then the down time that the body needs after your practice. As a competitive soccer player, I usually have 3 two hour practices every week and games on the weekend and I realized that I wasn't able to start my homework until very late in the night. Due to this unpleasant situation, I started to see how I could change my lifestyle in order to be more productive and use my time more wisely.
Here are a few things you could incorporate in your lifestyle which worked really well for me:
Make daily schedules: This is a practice I follow every single day. I organize my activities for the day which helps me plan out how much time I should allocate towards each task and what things I need to prioritize. Now, there are people who have very neatly made planners (kudos to you), but if you are a person who just wants to go with a flow, I highly recommend just taking out a post-it or opening a notes document in your laptop and just write the activities you need to accomplish. Trust me, spending some time every day to plan out your activities really pays off in the end (I realized that very late).
Use your time effectively: Most of the days in school, you would get short 5,10, or 15 minute breaks. You may think that you wouldn't be able to do a lot in this time, but just getting started on your homework and doing a few problems makes a significant difference in the end as these breaks pile up. I personally used to spend a lot of this time scrolling through instagram and facebook but I started to make use of these minutes which has been really effective for me.
Now don't get me wrong, it is very important to hang out with your friends and have a social life so please spend some of your breaks with your friends and not work the entire time.
Use your weekends: I cannot stress how important it is to make full use of your weekends. On Saturday and Sunday, I wake up in the morning around 8:00 AM and then study for at least 4-5 hours which pays off so well in the end as I am able to get so much work done. Then, you can go to whatever sport's practices or games you have.
Food is fuel: This is something that is overlooked by so many people. It is crucial that you take care of your nutrition as a sports player because studying and playing takes a lot of energy and the right food can help you sharpen your focus and be more productive throughout the day.
Employing some of these techniques and tasks into your lifestyle will definitely improve your productivity and you will be able to handle sports and school as well as get good sleep. It is imperative that you also take out time every day to relax to recharge your "batteries" so it is totally fine to watch some TV or play some video games. I hope you are able to use some of these tips and be more productive.
Works Cited:
Ekkanath, Shivani. “5 Ways to Be More Productive in High School.” CollegeXpress, www.collegexpress.com/articles-and-advice/majors-and-academics/blog/5-ways-be-more-productive-high-school/.
Soleimani, Sierra. “9 Tips for Balancing School And Sports.” How To Balance School and Sports | 9 Tips for Student Athletes, blog.sisuguard.com/how-to-find-a-balance-between-school-and-sports.