Time Managment, Always a Major Issue With Teen Age Students

Allison Hermann, a student at St. Joseph's Academy presented this week's question to the panel. She wants to know how students can find that happy medium, balancing school work, participating in sports and other extra curricular activities; holding a part-time job and keeping social life. Obviously, the answers will tend to be all over the board on this current topic.

Victoria Watson, Villa Duchesne:

Becoming too involved is not necessarily a bad thing. While it is great to have many interests and participate in numerous activities, balance is something that teens have to keep in mind. For some reason, now more than ever, my age group feels pressured to be successful at everything. While the saying, “don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” seems to apply here, teens have to know the difference between being well rounded and spreading themselves too thin.

As young adults, teens do have responsibilities: part-time jobs, doing our personal best in school, and playing sports. With this in mind, teens are not adults yet: they are still maturing. Expecting someone to get straight A’s, to be fully present in the workplace, to have a starting position on an athletic team, and to still have the desire to go out on the weekends is a very tall order.

To expect all of this from a teenager is unrealistic. In this situation, certain activities eclipse others, and the stress to compensate for the lost balance becomes almost as daunting as the task itself.

To refrain from becoming too involved in one activity seems unrealistic: our lives are not equally quartered off into separate realms of work, sports, school, and fun. There will be overlap. My solution is to sit down and look at who you are.

What are my interests and how do I want to spend my time? What is really important to me? Having what you value in mind, look at all the activities you’re involved in. At one time or another, we all have to ask ourselves if all of them are truly important.

If the answer is no, then feel free to take the liberty and stop participating in it. Having a core group of interests that you can act upon without wavering is much better than trying to juggle things in your schedule that you truly don’t care for. Become involved with what you really want to be involved with.

Curt Walls, Ladue:

Well I believe if one manages their time correctly they can achieve this. Also, this may be difficult, but if one stopped watching TV and only used their computer and other electronics for school work they could possibly see their grades improve.

Rebecca Antony, MICDS:

I think a high school student has to keep in mind the concept of balance, and if they're exceptionally good at something, spend less time on that than on their weaker subjects, if you really want to be balanced.

If you're not one for balance, you'll understand that some things need to have priorities over others. For me it's schoolwork over everything, but I can understand if you're looking for a sport scholarship and need to put sports at the top of your list.

Again, if you're more worried over sports than school, your definition of "good grades" might be in the range much lower than a person who puts school on top of everything. It all depends on the person, and although everyone wants "good grades," the term's definition varies by the person.

Isabelle Stillman, John Burroughs:

It is important to keep track of every commitment we make; high schoolers are often interested in and tied to several different activities, and the ability to plan ahead and to organize time wisely is very important.

However, it is nearly impossible to handle every activity to the fullest, and therefore prioritizing becomes essential. The decision to focus on one commitment over others is a crucial part of managing our time, and narrowing down our interests for the future. 

Molly Soto, St. Joseph's Academy:

I think the best way to maintain the balance of school, work, sports, and a social life is having time management and knowing your limits. You have to know what your priorities are and which activities are the most important in your life.

I play field hockey and the time commitment is demanding but I enjoy playing and I am able to balance my school work, practice, and a social life pretty easily. I think it is possible for students to manage these commitments only if they are willing to but in the effort.  

Spencer Desai, MICDS:

While this seems like an impossible task, it is possible to do but it would require some sacrifices. While it is human nature to want to focus on one and forget about the others at times, people have to sacrifice time with one to effectively handle the other.

Another possible solution is to mix two of them together. You could somehow communicate with friends while at work to keep your social life alive while getting most of your work done as well.

Allison Hermann, St. Joseph's Academy:

I think time management is a very difficult tasks for high school students. Teenagers tend to overwhelm themselves with sports, clubs, jobs, and school. To manage time, high school students should only take on the amount of responsibilities they know they can perform.

Taking on too many responsibilities leads to stress. By knowing how much you can do, a high school student can learn how to manage their time wisely and still have time to be social and do the things they enjoy.

Cate Toman, St. Joseph's Academy:

Time management is absolutely essential. In my opinion, high school students generally have a lot on their plate, including sports, extracurricular activities, social gatherings, standardized test preparation, family time, among other things. Time management allows us to keep everything together without crashing--I know this is sometimes an issue for me.

A cycle will start: on any particular night I'll have so much homework and be so tired that I dread the thought of even starting it, and when I do get around to starting it, it's at the last minute, which makes me go without sleep to finish it, leaving me tired for the next day and starting the whole thing all over again. It's important to avoid this, and simple time management and pro-activity are the key to doing so.