Balancing work, school, sports, academics, and social life is intimidating and hard to handle. When you have the life skill of balancing, it can help you to feel less stressed, which will lead to a better academic performance.
When balancing all of these tasks, it becomes important to prioritize the most important tasks. Having time management skills can help you tremendously when trying to do all of the things in such a short amount of time. Also, taking time for yourself is always important. As high schoolers, everyone has so much going with school, sports, working, and making time for yourself, family, and friends.
Sierra Billhimer, a counselor at Carolina Forest, expressed, “I try to encourage each of my students in their IGP meetings to balance their classes so they don’t feel overwhelmed throughout the semester. Balancing core classes with electives is key to not be as overworked in the school aspect.”
School and sports are things that come with a lot of pressure from teachers and parents. Having a full day of school work and then going to a two hour practice right after school can become overwhelming and exhausting. Then sometimes your teachers expect you to go home and do some more work for their class. Some students have work on top of school and sports. So after practice they might go to work.
Raegan Reynolds, a senior, shared, “Time management/ balance is something that I had to really learn all throughout high school and really helped me become successful in my academics.”
According to the research, less than half of students feel they have an excellent or good school/life balance (45%), and more than a fourth (29%) with fair to very poor school/life balance feel it’s having a negative impact on their ability to start career planning. The data also showed there is a disconnect between parents and students, with nearly double the number of parents believing their students have an excellent or good school/life balance (80%).
In an article entitled “Let’s Talk About Mental Health,” it stated, “Improving your work/life balance allows your mind to rest and reset, which is crucial for emotional resilience. It creates room for the things that bring you happiness and reduce stress, like spending time with loved ones, engaging in hobbies, or simply relaxing without an agenda.”
Balancing life is something that some adults even still struggle with at their age. It might not always be easy, but it is definitely beneficial.
