In preparation for my upcoming course, I thought I’d give you a glimpse into my schedule to show you what I know about balancing time. Here was what an average day looked like for me for most of my second semester this year (the first semester was similar, except instead of afternoon Track Practice we had morning Cross Country practice before school):
6:10 am: Wake up; get ready for school
It doesn’t take me long to get ready for school, so I normally take some extra time here to check emails, reddit, cleanmemes, etc.
6:50 am: Leave for school
(0 bell) 7:10-7:50 am: Destination Imagination or Setting up tables in the cafeteria.
For the first three quarters of the year, I would meet with my Destination Imagination Improv team during this period. We would meet twice a week.
On days where I didn’t have morning DI, I would help set up tables in the cafeteria.
I spend any remaining time studying or checking emails, reddit, etc.; basically anything I check daily that I didn’t check before leaving home for the day.
8:10 am - 12:10 am: Class
I was blessed to have all of my core classes in the morning. Being a morning person, this means that I usually am in my most important classes when I am most focused.
12:15-1pm: Lunch
I normally don’t need this much time for lunch, so I’ll spend extra time doing homework. If I don’t have any, I’ll normally go on reddit (again).
However, for most of the year I had meetings during lunch several days of the week. There were some weeks where I would only eat in the cafeteria one day out of the week. This is because many of the activities I am involved in meet during lunch, including: Student Council, Robotics Club, and Speech Team.
1:05-1:50pm: Study Hall or DI Maze Craze
This was a life-saver for me this year. This was where I got a large portion of my homework done during the day. Between this and lunch, I was able to knock out most or all of my homework before I even left school.
I was on two DI teams this year. The Improv team (mentioned earlier), and the Maze Craze Team. It was pretty common for me to be dismissed from study hall so I could work on DI stuff.
1:55-2:40pm: Elective (Debate Class)
2:40-3:30pm: Athletics or DI Maze Craze
My school’s mandatory athletics period is pretty easy. During Track season, I didn’t have to participate. Instead, all the Track athletes got a study hall during this period (unless we were practicing at the scschool, in which case practice started at the same time as the Athletics period).
3:30-4pm: Downtime Before Track Practice
We normally go off-campus for Track practice, and they give us a lot of time between the end of school and the start of practice.
4:30-6pm: Track Practice
’nuff said.
6:30pm: Arrive home
I normally ate dinner, walked my dog, then finished any remaining homework. If I have time, I will do some more leisure reading on reddit or maybe work on my game.
9:30pm: Bible Study
I had a Bible study that I did every night for most of the year. Afterwards, I would do my daily Bible reading.
10-10:30pm-ish: Go to bed
Many of my friends wonder why I go to bed so early. The answer is that I greatly value sleep. The way I see it, I could spend an hour on YouTube before going to bed, be entertained for a while, and be more tired the next day, or I could get a healthy amount of sleep and not worry about what I might be “missing out on” by not staying up later.
Additionally, I have to wake up earlier than most of them.
Saturday
9:30-11:30am: Golf Practice
1-2:30am: Computer Science Club Meeting
I am founder and president of my school’s CS club, and when I started it I had no free time left during the week because of the previously mentioned meetings and responsibilities. So I decided to have meetings on Saturdays with just enough time to eat lunch after Golf practice. I had a few other reasons for Saturday meetings as well. It would separate the people who are actually dedicated from the people who aren’t. Second, it would allow more freedom since we would meet at my house instead of the school (where YouTube and the .io TLD are restricted and you can’t access the wifi unless you’re on the whitelist).
Conclusion
You might have noticed that I used the phrase “For most of the year” a lot. This is because my schedule changed fairly frequently depending on the season. I had Cross Country, which had morning practices, during the first semester. I had Track, which had afternoon practices, during the second semester. Most of the academic competitions I am involved in didn’t finish until April (which was probably my most stressful month this year). While my DI Improv Team didn’t make it past regionals, my DI Maze Craze Team is going to globals next week.
What is your schedule like? Was I wrong to say I was busy? Tell me in the comments below.
In my upcoming course, you will learn to use the same method I used to manage my time, minimze stress, and still have fun this year despite all I had to do. To receive updates about the course, click here. This will not subscribe you to the rest of the blog. You can do that below should you so desire.
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