The new school year brings many exciting activities and events with it, like the various recreational activities, clubs, and the many amazing school sports offered here at LM. School sports are a great way to be engaged in the community while playing the sport you love, but as the school year progresses, it sometimes proves challenging for student athletes to balance their sports, academics, and other extracurriculars. There are many different ways to successfully manage these activities without feeling burnt out or overwhelmed. Here are some of the most effective and easy ways I’ve found, as one student athlete, to control my life while participating in sports.
The first way I’ve found that you can balance sports and school is with a planner or calendar. With a planner, you can easily map out your upcoming practices, tests, homework assignments, and other events. If you’re having a problem with forgetting assignments or running out of time to study, a planner is one of the quickest ways to fix this issue. If you see that you are extremely busy on a certain day, you can try to assign meetings or other tasks on other days so you won’t have to struggle with overbooking. You can also alot time to a given activity or assignment so you can balance all of your activities. For example, if you know you have a game at 4:30, but you have a test the next day and multiple assignments for other classes, you can try to schedule specific times for each of your tasks, such as 45 minutes to study and an hour of homework after your game.
Another way to successfully manage your time is by completing homework while at school. While this might sound hard, it is actually very possible. We are given an hour of Lunch and Learn, where you are allowed to study, work, or visit teachers for help. It is the perfect time to get ahead and finish your homework. Not only this, but there are also frees and study halls which can help you focus without all the noise. You might even be given time during class to complete assignments and study for tests. Many people don’t want to give up time with friends during lunch, but it is necessary sometimes to sacrifice time in order to succeed. Even if you are leaving early for an away game, you can still try to get your work done before that, or even attempt to do it on the bus.
Additionally utilizing a teacher’s weekly plan can truly help with your academic success and . Most teachers will have a weekly plan posted on their Schoology. If you are aware that you will be missing a class, then you should check the weekly plan to see what you need to do before the next class. This can tell you what the rest of the class was doing in the period and any homework or assignments that you might need to catch up on. You can look ahead, email, or talk to your teacher directly, or any other various forms of communication and completion to get the assignment done beforehand. Along with this, communicating with your teacher is crucial when being a student athlete. If you know you have a game that’s an hour away and you have lots of homework too, you should always email your teacher and try to figure something out. Most teachers will give you an extension once they find out you have a late away game; you just have to communicate the issue in advance and not be afraid to talk to them about it.
I believe you should never pick sports over school work, or vice versa. It is important to remember to balance school work with your sports, because picking sports over school will never work and you will end up falling behind, and picking school over your favorite sport will make you feel worn out and stressed. While school can be stressful, sports are a great way to feel more grounded and connected to the community and your friends. They can help you forget about your upcoming math test that you are very nervous for and calm you down for an hour. There are many ways to design a lifestyle and schedule where you can get schoolwork done and still have fun participating in a school sport or club. There shouldn’t be stress building up as long as you plan, manage your time, communicate, and maintain the balance. With these four plans, you can successfully be the best student athlete possible.
