Article by Sydney Loder
As students begin to grow, their personal time becomes seldom and futile. They begin to have loads of homework, applications to fill out, and lengthy practices filling up every hour of their day. How then are students able to balance hobbies, such as reading, when they have such busy lives?
First and foremost, students need to learn how to manage their time. Time management is possibly the most important step of balancing life and hobbies. However, it is also the toughest to fulfill. To make it as simple as possible, students need to learn how to plan. This can take place through buying a planner, writing out the months schedule, and then weekly/daily to do lists. Having a visual representation of the time a student has in a day coupled with the things they need to get done will allow for some sort of time management to seep into their lives.
Along with managing time, students need to figure out what part of their lives, outside of school and sports, is most important to them. In this case, we have decided that the student finds recreational reading to be extremely important. Once the student creates a hierarchy of their hobbies, they must find the time to actually pursue them. If the student reads, they may decide that they will read an hour every night before bed or they will allot time during the weekend. If the student is still finding it challenging to find time for their hobbies, they can look at their schedule created in their planner, and plan out the time for their hobby.
Lastly, students need to put their phones down. As a student myself, I discovered that I spent every minute not doing work on my phone. I often found myself stressed out because I didn't have any time for me. Once I realized that this stress was self-inflicted, I put a timer on my phone and every app to make sure I gave myself more time to focus on myself and hobbies, such as reading. In no way should a student take this as getting rid of all social media, all games, and all streaming services. Instead, a student should limit themselves, enjoy the things that they love and the people around them.
Finding time for reading and other hobbies is completely possible, even with the craziness of life. Students just need to take a step back and organize their time so they can truly discover how much they have.
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