Table of Contents
Understand your priorities and goals
Evaluating the intelligence of a student based on just their academics is not a holistic manner of evaluating their abilities. That is why extracurricular activities exist and students join these along with their academics in order to explore other areas of interest and stimulate their minds in different ways. It also serves as a good accolade for your resume if you end up getting good at something.
Although there are many advantages of opting for extracurricular activities, you must know your priorities and not let your grades get affected. How much time and energy you spend on the activities will be decided by your goals. When your semester starts or college starts, you have to set goals so that when you have limited energy and time, you spend it wisely on your higher priorities and learn how to balance academics and extracurricular activities in high school/college
Evaluate your current schedule and commitments
When you are deciding to choose a society or club to join for an extracurricular activity, you need to properly analyse your current life’s commitments. Every kind of task needs your attention and you can not focus on your exams or a tough course if the activity you chose is very demanding. For example, if your goal for college is to get a GPA above 2.5 and participate in at least three clubs, you will need to see when any of these goals are under threat and then adjust your schedule accordingly. During the first year of your studies at college, you are usually just observing and learning about college life while trying to maintain your grades. If you add some extra curricular to this mix of activities, you will not know how to maintain a social life while balancing academics and extracurricular activities and this will make you stressed. It is suggested that you start these activities from your second year.
Develop a plan and schedule for your academic and extracurricular activities
Planning a schedule is very helpful when you have so many things to do. On top of all of this, you also need to take care of yourself and meet friends. Design your schedule in a way that it does not affect your health and social life and keep some gap for emergencies in your timetable as well. When you are making a schedule, fit your tasks during the times of the day when you are most productive. Keep extra curriculars for times when you are not stressed about academic work. This will also teach you about work-life balance after your student life ends. Through effective time management, you will not be stressed all the time about balancing academics and music/sports/club involvement.
Use time management strategies and tools to stay organized and on track
There are many types of time management techniques that suit different kinds of people. Someone in a leadership role would adopt a different style from a creative thinker. It is the nature of your work and your personality that can help you organise your tasks accordingly. Here are some common time management tools that you can try and explore if you are stressed:
- Pomodoro technique: Setting a timer for 25 minutes and focusing on work and then taking a 2-3 minutes break. Repeating this cycle and getting your tasks done one by one will help you get over procrastination
- Eisenhower Matrix: You start by making a list of urgent tasks and important tasks. Urgent tasks have deadlines that are close but important ones are linked to long term goals. Then these are divided into four quadrants and the ones that fit into urgent and important, need to be taken care of first
- Time blocking method: Divide one piece of paper into two columns- in one column, write down all the hours of the day and in the right column, you should write down the corresponding task. Add some gaps to incorporate breaks and emergencies
Prioritize self-care and stress management to avoid burnout
Learning to take care of yourself is an important part of maintaining mental health while balancing academics and extracurricular activities and this can vary for every person. At the end of a stressful day, if taking a hot bath helps you more than having tea, then you should do more of that. Figure out what your mind and body like in times of stress and incorporate these practices into your daily life instead of waiting to get burnt out by all your extracurricular and academic activities. This will prevent stress and help you carry on without getting ill health. Some other great ways of stress management are running, yoga, reading, listening to soothing music, etc.
Create a support network and ask for help when needed
Getting stuck in studies or feeling overwhelmed by college life? You need friends, seniors, professors and other people around you to help you with different kinds of problems. What you need to keep in mind is that you should not keep it to yourself. Seek help and resolve the problems in the most objective manner.
Learn to say “no” to commitments that don’t align with your goals and priorities
College life is the first taste of freedom in a young person’s life so a lot of students feel lost and get overwhelmed by the amount of choices in front of them. Socialising, playing sports, pursuing a hobby with a club are all activities that sound exciting but if you say yes to everything, you will run out of energy in a very short time. In order to preserve your energy, be strong and learn to say no.
Adjust and adapt your plan as needed to maintain balance and achieve success
Whatever your plan is, keep it open to changes and make it flexible. Whenever some priority is getting ignored, you need to adjust accordingly and then respond immediately. This requires wisdom and understanding of your long term goals.
