Today, many teens participate in sports, have jobs, and enjoy their social lives all while commuting to high school five days a week. This means students would need to wake up early enough to make it to school around 8:25 a.m., leave around 4:00 p.m., show up to any practices or meetings for extracurricular activities such as sports or clubs, and then show up to work about an hour later. This can cause stress and result in issues in time management. Although a busy schedule is stressful, it is possible, and quite easy, to practice time-management skills to improve mental health, performance in school and work, and live a better lifestyle.

•       Set Priorities with Your Time

Decide whether a task is urgent or if it can wait. If you have plans after school to go to the mall with your friends, but also have an assignment due an hour after school ends, you will want to finish up your homework before heading off to shop. Although the clear answer everyone would want is to immediately go and enjoy time with friends, the more important task is finishing up school work.

• Divide larger tasks into smaller tasks

Sometimes time management and getting tasks done can be extremely overwhelming. Especially when everything is laid out right in front of you. Instead of folding three loads of laundry in an hour, break it up into groups such as socks, jeans, t-shirts, etc. 

• Organize and Plan

Writing lists, keeping a planner, or even putting tasks into your calendar can all help with managing tasks within your time. Organize your to-do list into small sections for certain tasks to be completed throughout the day, therefore it is not overwhelming nor stressful to complete. 

• Set Deadlines

Setting deadlines can motivate you to complete tasks while still in a timely manner. Something as simple as setting an alarm to notify you to start/finish a task can help with feeling overwhelmed and create motivation to complete your tasks. 

• Take care of yourself

Getting a full night’s rest and getting the most out of your nutrition helps a great deal with time management and a stress-free environment. Not getting enough sleep paired with bad eating habits are not only associated with health problems in the future, but also proven to weaken your immune system, cause irritability, and cause even more stress, which is what you don’t need while attempting to time-manage. Taking good care of yourself physically helps so much with time management and being successful.

     Time management is such an important skill to learn, especially in high school. This will carry over into college and your future career. Just five little steps can turn a life full of stress into a breeze. Staying organized, healthy, and managing your time improves mental health, and performance, and keeps your body young.