Throughout high school, teachers expect a lot from their students, but what many teachers don’t see is their students’ struggle to balance their school, work and social life. Some parents require their children to have part time jobs during their high school years, whereas other students do it out of necessity either to teach themselves responsibility or to have a little extra money for themselves. While managing school, work and a social life can be a huge challenge. From personal experience, I will say it can also be rewarding.

This topic is a huge struggle many high schoolers, including myself, have to learn how to manage. While my parents made me get a job, they are understanding if I need to cut my hours so that I am able to focus on school and grades more.  My biggest struggle of managing school, work and social life is finding the time do everything. I have to find the time to study, hang out with friends and work. Although this can be challenging, I just make sure I have my priorities straight and make sure I only take on what I can handle.

According to Robbie Prisco, a junior, the hardest part of managing everything is “not getting enough sleep.”

In order to successfully manage school, work, and life, students should make sure to keep an updated schedule. Many students keep a planner where they write down important dates. In the planner, students should do things such as make to-do lists and keep it  updated so they aren’t surprised by sudden plans or due dates. If they keep the calendar updated, it will make it easier to stay ahead on work and tasks.  

Senior Keshawn Eldridge’s advice to those struggling to manage school, work and social life is, “Have a system and a planner to balance it out.”  Personally, my life has become much better since I started keeping a planner to help organize my busy life.

As a teacher, Ms. Twigg is an advocate for all students and teachers to have a planner to help them maintain a successful lifestyle.  “I don’t know what I’d do without my planners.  I have a teacher planner that contains monthly calendars, note sections for meetings and reminders, a weekly calendar for lesson plans, a grade book sections and build-in file folders.  A personal planner is kept at home to help me keep up with school things, as well as personal plans.  Both help keep me sane.”

One mistake people often make while managing a busy schedule is procrastinating. Procrastinating does nothing but add stress.  While managing all these tasks. avoid stress at all costs. On top of all this, students need to make sure they know their limits and are getting time to themselves with enough sleep. Being overwhelmed and pushing limits will only hurt in the end. Students should prioritize all tasks and learn to say no to things when asked to do last minute plans, despite not wanting to disappoint others.