High school students everywhere struggle with finding time to attend numerous practices, work shifts and club meetings every week. This is also while they are trying to spend time with family and friends. During the school year, that adds seven hours, five days a week, spent in the classroom.
Emmy Wieczorek is a sophomore at GHS who participates in track and her club soccer team while also working both at U Save Pharmacy and Scooters Coffee. With all of this, she still manages to maintain good grades and get her work turned in on time.
“When I have homework, sports and work, I just get really overwhelmed,” Wieczorek said. “But I just take my time and get everything done that needs to be done. I try to keep a calendar up to date with everything I have to do, but sometimes I forget because I get too busy.”
Keeping track of everything can be hard for students who don’t have enough time on their hands in the first place. Stress can also be a reason that students don’t stick with doing a lot of school sponsored activities. Working one or multiple jobs can also cause a tight schedule for those students.
However, there are ways that this stress can be reduced and ways that students can better their time management skills.
“My advice would be to get a calendar or an app or handwritten, and schedule times to get things done. If you have practice this time and then free time at that time, then you need to use that free time to study and get assignments done,” assistant principal Theresa Huttmann said. “So maximize your time, but be sure to know what time you have available.”
Audrey Wilcoxson is a senior who participates in track, Skills USA, FBLA, FCA and NHS. This is also while she is working at Fariner Bakery, reffing volleyball on the weekends and running a bakery business out of her own home. Wilcoxson shares what her method for time management is.
“I like to make a to-do list and stick to it,” Wilcoxson said. “I also manage a calendar of everything you need to get done in a day. It can be pretty stressful, but I’m a very Type-A person, so if I stick to my due dates of when everything needs to get done, I’m able to make time for other things and to hang out with friends.”
There are only so many things a student can do to prevent and reduce stress, while also getting everything done. There are some students who have issues with sports practices that cause them to leave directly after school, and then not arrive back at home until late at night. On days before tests, it can cause problems by not having any time to study while also maintaining a good sleep schedule.
“On Tuesdays and Thursdays every week, I leave straight from school to go to practice, and I don’t get home until 9:30 at night,” sophomore Ainsley Hodges said. “I don’t have any time to study on those nights, so sometimes I have to get up early in the morning to study so I can do well on tests that we have on Wednesdays and Fridays.”
However, things like this do not stop many students from getting good grades, making deadlines and completing missing work at GHS.
