Busy Students See Time Management as a Concern

Students feel that managing their time efficiently in high school is harder than it seems, and is leading to greater amounts of anxiety and stress.

As the school year progresses, the overwhelming amount of homework a student receives has only seemed to worsen. Doing assignments all day in school, followed by doing an endless amount of homework after school results in barely any free time or socializing.

Many of the students take on extracurricular activities throughout the school year. Keeping up with assignments on top of those activities, such as clubs or sports, adds on to the stress weighing students down. Freshman Eva Ocampo said, “When I played volleyball, I had it every single day after school, and I had a lot less time to do my homework or other things I needed to get done. This year, as the first year of high school, has been especially harder than usual to balance my time between school and volleyball compared to middle school, because the classes are harder, and you get less time dedicated [to] your personal time and social life.”

Ocampo also takes several honors classes, and is given more work than the average student receives.“The amount of homework and assignments I receive, plus daily volleyball practice, also limits my time spent towards extracurricular activities. Because of having so much homework, I wasn’t able to join as many clubs as I wanted to, or get as involved with the school,” Ocampo said.

Anxiety and stress also plays a big role when managing time efficiently, as another freshman, Gabriela Crowe, struggles due to how bad her anxiety gets. Crowe said, “Time managing 100% worsens my anxiety, because I can just watch the clock tick away until midnight when something is due that night…Many people really just crumble under the pressure, and I feel like that isn’t really fair to some students, because everyone learns [and] works differently, so it’s hard to put everyone under the same umbrella,” Crowe said.

Although students take on different activities to fill their time, they all still struggle with time management. Freshman Mary Braico puts in a lot of effort in the theater department, and likewise to volleyball, has theater practice every day after school. She spends a great amount of her time dedicated to perfecting her lines, but that time is constantly being limited. Braico said, “I’m involved in theatre, I’m currently in the show Mean Girls, I'm also auditioning for region choir, as well as being a part of Student Council, and I’m planning to eventually get a job."

Braico finds that she's so busy, she can't always find the time to try something new. "I also want to join crew, but I’m unsure of everything because of time management and trying to balance my time. Trying to cram in a bunch of tests, along with back to back rehearsals and auditions ... I’ve been very stressed out.”

Braico looks for short gaps in her activities so she can squeeze in her school work. “Whenever we got a break at rehearsal, I would do some homework, or study for a test. Definitely being involved doesn't give me a lot of free time on weekdays, because usually when I get home, I have to eat dinner and shower and do chores, or anything else I have to do, and other things I want to do I can’t do often because of how busy I’ve been. I mean, it’s different for everyone, I’m the type of person who does get stressed out easily, so managing is definitely important,” she said.

Guidance Counselor Jill Divilio talked about time management, and how hard it can be, especially in high school. “One of the big downfalls I see for kids with time management issues is they know they are bad at it, so they focus on one assignment, and are behind in all of their other classes. So, they end up hyper-focusing, creating a bad cycle for themselves, and don’t evenly space out their time,” Divilio said.

Students have to be aware of when they might need support to maintain a healthy outlook. “When a student falls behind, I definitely think anxiety can grow, and they seem to feel like they can’t recover if they start falling behind. In high school, the amount of work and expectations increases, and it’s important for students to make a plan and get help when needed,” Divilio said.

For some students, time management is a challenging obstacle to overcome, and is especially difficult and more stressful for high school students who are still in the process of learning how to manage their time effectively; knowing when others can step in and help is essential for those who begin to feel that they're overwhelmed with responsibilities.