In order to achieve success in any task, it is vital to learn proper time management. High school life is power-packed with varied activities that call for a lot of involvement on the part of the student. Given this, if the student is unable to properly handle time, he might end up wasting his time in activities that add negligible value to his entire life and career. Here are 5 effective time management tips that would help high school students to manage their time by striking an appropriate balance between studies and other activities. With each of the tip comes a free online tool to make the implementation super easy for you.
Keep a to-do-list ready
When students are in high school, most of them do not have a plan about how they would spend each day. This absence of planning leads to a lot of confusion and ultimately considerable amount of time is wasted in deciding what to do and when to do it. If a student has a to-do-list ready he can enhance his productivity through proper allocation of time to the different tasks that he needs to do. It is advisable to take up comparatively difficult tasks in the morning because the mind is fresh at that time.
The best online to-do list that I have tried so far is Google tasks as I like its simplicity and ability to sync across my devices so long as I’m logged in to Gmail.
Carry work with you
In case there is an assignment due or you have an upcoming test, it would be great to carry your work with you wherever you are going. This will ensure that you can utilize the lunch time or any other free time for studying. You may even complete a bit of study as you wait for transportation. Although it is hard to avoid social media, try to concentrate on your work at your free time rather than checking Twitter and Facebook every now and then. If you utilize your minutes wisely, you will get more time for relaxation or doing some other activity that you enjoy.
With Dropbox you do not have to worry about forgetting your physical notes. Besides being a good tool for backing up your documents, Dropbox is also very helpful for sharing files between members in a project work.
Be sure of your priorities
A majority of high school students are unaware of their priorities and hence they indulge in doing things that could easily have been completed afterwards. If a student does not have proper knowledge of priorities, he might ignore the things that require urgent attention and concentrate more on things that do not have so much of urgency. Being sure of the priorities enables a student to lead a less stressful life and carry out all tasks effectively.
Rescue Time is a tool for finding out how you have been spending your time online. If you say studies are your priority, the report from Rescue Time may offer a reality check for you. Statistics don’t lie, find out your real priorities.
Avoid procrastination
It is an age old advice, but it would not be out-of-place to repeat it here. Students should never get into the bad habit of putting things off for a later period of time. Procrastination in fact hampers the schedule to a great extent and ultimately the student will not get adequate time to carry our required tasks. Therefore, the best thing is to categorize the work into convenient segments across a number of days. Abiding by this schedule will make you more organized and leave time for relaxation.
Check out Focal Filter where you can block out distracting websites and avoid procrastination with sites such as Facebook.
Escape from getting sidetracked
If at any point of time you feel that you are getting indulged in insignificant things, immediately stop, and get back to your priorities as per the to-do list. You might procrastinate because of confusion regarding a school project and get involved in other ‘petty’ activities. If that is the issue, take the help of your teacher to solve the problem and move ahead.
