School can take most of your day and this can feel frustrating. It’s always important to have time for your hobbies or side projects so that you can live life as a human being. Life outside of class is where we live at the end of the day.
If you get consumed by the education system,s however, you’ll end up just running after deadlines and grades. If this sounds like what you’re going through right now, here are some tips that I found helpful to balance my studies and my hobbies.
Organize your studying time:
Sticking to a very strict studying schedule will help you greatly. Last year when I was in 12th grade I had a lot of free time while studying well (and got an A+). This is mainly because I had a strict schedule of studying 30 minutes each day after school. Sometimes I would need more time of course but it was usually sufficient especially because I started doing this since day one. Just sitting there for 30 minutes consistently every day is much better than studying for hours on a weekend.
Your mind needs to be in good shape to accept information well. I had a motivation (Fortnite unfortunately) to finish my studies. I gave myself a rule that I won’t play until I’m done with my studying, I would break the rule often but overall I did stick to it. This helped me to get my home work out of the way so that I can actually enjoy what I want to do without feeling ashamed or regretful.
Wake up early (but it depends):
I would say wake up early but this will depend on your schedule or preference. Getting things done is more important for me than when you do it. Normally classes are in the morning that’s why I say it depends. If your classes start at 10 am, however, you have a huge opportunity to wake up at 6 or 7 in order to study. Then after going to your classes you’ll have the entire day for you.
Just try and figure out where to schedule your studying time, and try to have it before doing your hobbies. This is because you might just never stop playing that game or developing that app and end up not studying. You’ll also feel bad about not studying that day. Add to that your brain being exhausted and you’re left alone using your phone at 2 am feeling bad about yourself.
Always try out new things:
Having time for your hobbies implies having hobbies first. If you don’t have a hobby, try out new things. You can easily waste your time scrolling through Instagram hashtags or twitter replies. While it’s good to stay up to date with the world, social media can become addicting very easily especially at this age.
Have the courage to try out new things and you might just find your next best hobby. It doesn’t have to be something “useful” but it could just be something that makes you happy so that you can keep going. You can for example try:
- playing tennis
- building an app
- creating a blog
- making a youtube video
- painting (the classic)
- learning a new language
- going to the gym
- cooking
- juggling a football ball
- martial arts
- reading books
- playing guitar
