Flickr user Jill Carlson (jillcarlson.org)
Do you feel like you’ve bitten off more than you could chew during your senior year? If you chose a lot of extracurriculars with college prep on top of it, you could easily become overwhelmed if you don’t have a strategy. There’s a good solution though: create a daily schedule.
Create a Schedule
Creating a schedule is one of the best things you can do to help tackle your senior year. These strategies will also help you during college to help ensure you are on task for your work and attending the other clubs or groups you’re apart of.
Your schedule will be unique to you. You know what you have to get done. Here are some things you’ll want to include on your particular weekly schedule if you like to participate in a lot of different things:
- Academic extracurricular
- Volunteer work or other non-academic extracurricular
- Sports
- ACT or SAT study time/practice tests
- School
- Scholarship research and applying
- College research and applying
- Homework
- Free time
- Meals
There may be other things you personally have to add to the list, but these examples are a great place to start. (And never skip free time! You need that in your life, even when things get hectic) Your schedule will change as your year goes on, so make sure you’re taking care of what needs to be prioritized.
Schedule Example
Here’s a quick example of what a schedule may look like for a student during the fall if the student participates in soccer, volunteer work at the animal shelter, and the Explorer’s Club through their high school.
Tailoring It To You
Your schedule will obviously look different than the one above, but you’re more than welcome to use it as a guideline. You may want to devote more of your Saturday to SAT or ACT study or you may have to volunteer or attend another extracurricular activity that day. You may also need more than an hour to complete your homework after school or if you completed all your work during study halls, you have that extra hour to devote to something else.
Don’t follow the weekly schedule you create stringently if you can’t. Mix up each week, but take time the week before to plan it out. After all, your volunteer work or sports schedule may change from week to week. Or you may have an extra meet up or field trip for your academic extracurricular. Don’t feel they’re rules! Stick close to it though to make sure you’re staying on track.
If you feel you’re falling behind on something, whether it be a project or scholarship research, devote more time to it the following week and less time to something you’re more ahead on.
Be flexible with your schedule and remember they’re not hard fast rules you have to follow week after week. However, always allow for space for meals, free time, social, and other aspects of life that are important to you and your overall well-being and health.
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