As the first semester unfolds this school year, many students have come to realize that they have underestimated the difficulty and level of commitment required to undertake this school year. The number of extracurriculars and hobbies ranges from student to student, with some focusing solely on schoolwork with no outside extracurriculars, while others take on a more demanding schedule that requires more time for these activities.
Students are affected by this ongoing problem throughout all grade levels, overwhelmed by the long list of commitments. I seek to explore the many ways current students have managed their schedule and achieve an solution to this problem.
Henry French, Harber Lampl, Jack Stevens, Grant Reed, Henry Taylor, Grant Bomersbach, and Luke Nettune share advice on how they manage their schedules.
What hobbies/extracurriculars do you have?
Henry F: “Yes, I do rugby, I’m in the barbecue club, and admissions ambassadors.”
Harber L: “I wrestle and I play golf a lot.”
Jack S: “I play varsity and club water polo.”
Grant R: “I do art, video games, and I play rugby, and I lift.”
Luke N: “I’m on the tennis team, I’m a state representative for the Texas state junior classical league, and I’m the president of the chess club.”
Grant B: “I play volleyball, I’ve been on the Hope squad since freshman year, I’m a member of the engineering society, astronomy club, artist club, and religious rangers.”
Henry T: “I play rugby, video games, and I like to lift sometimes.”
How do you usually plan your week to fit in both schoolwork and your extracurriculars?
Henry F: “For sports I don’t need to plan, I can just see the schedule. But, for schoolwork, I look at the assignment center and write on a note card what I need to do. Then I tell myself ‘OK get this done before this’ and then I do it in a way that doesn’t make me cram so I can have a good deal of free time each night.”
Harber L: “I make sure to get my homework done during school and then I try to go to Brookhaven and study there because I find that I study best there. I just can’t really study at home, it just doesn’t work for me.”
Jack S: “I have a planner, so every Sunday I try and fill out my homework for that week. Then I can plan my week around that so I maximize my time getting school work done and then that leaves me with more time to play water polo after school.”
Grant R: “At the start of every week, I look at all the tests, quizzes, homework, and practices and I just write down a list of everything I have to do. I’ll cross things out or add things as they appear and I just won’t let myself do fun things because I have important stuff going on.”
Luke N: “A planner is a big thing for me, because I can write down what I need to get done and when. I also have designated times where I’m not gonna work on homework, on Fridays I’m going to hang out with friends.”
Grant B: “On Sunday usually I’ll look at my assignment center and I’ll decide what parts of the week will get pretty crazy. I usually take Tuesday and Wednesday nights to get extra work done because Thursday is gonna be a crazy day. I try to take advantage of the gap in the middle of the week where we’re not assigned anything to kind of balance things out.”
Henry T: “I don’t plan schoolwork before the week begins but I will put service and meetings with the teachers in a calendar. Sometimes I plan what homework I have and I’ll make a to-do list when get home but that’s it.”
Do you struggle with maintaining a balance between time spent on schoolwork and time spent on extracurriculars?
Henry F: “Not really, I am taking a lot of AP courses though. I mean you’re just gonna have to space things out over the course of the week.”
Harber L: “Yeah, sometimes it’s just tough when practice is after school because then it doesn’t leave me with a lot of time to eat, shower, and then get work done. I just always end up feeling really tired at the end of the day so I always ended up putting work off.”
Jack S: “It’s challenging at times, but I’ll try utilizing my time at school to get as much homeworks done so I also have time to focus on water polo outside of school.”
Grant R: “Whenever I have a lot going on at school, I’m never able to play as many video games or to do other stuff as I’d want to. I have to sacrifice time with friends for playing rugby, studying, or doing homework. It’s difficult to do the fun stuff that I wanna do while also keeping up with school and keeping up good grades.”
Luke N: “Yeah, It’s challenging to maintain a balance, especially as I get older and have harder classes and am involved extracurriculars. I’ve learned to get better at maintaining the balance through a dedicated planner where I write down my assignments and what I have to do.”
Grant B: “I don’t have to spend too much time outside of school on them. It’s pretty demanding inside of school so I don’t have a lot of free time during the day but I find that if I’m productive when I get home so I can get most of my work done there.”
Henry T: “A lot of the times I do forget to do schoolwork because I don’t think about it when I get home, it’s mainly math I forget about.”
What’s the biggest challenge you face in trying to balance both?
Harber L: “I struggle to find the motivation to study day after day after day because my study sessions are long and they’re fairly draining and it’s tough to do that multiple times. I just feels like after one I feel like I’m done for a day or two.”
Jack S: “I would say one of my bigger like like my bigger challenges, balancing school water polo would be a lack of motivation. I enjoy having free time here and there so it’s hard having so much time doing homework and then water polo right after that.”
Grant R: “Biggest challenge for me is just trying to do everything I have to do before dealing with the things I wanna do.”
Luke N: “My biggest challenge is my phone and getting distracted. Often times, when I’m faced with having to do something I don’t like, Revisions or other homework, I procrastinate and instead just scroll on my phone.”
Grant B: “I tend to say yes to everything so whenever people ask me to do something or they they need someone to help out, I tend to just jump to say yes and help out without making sure it works with my schedule. However, this also has taught me self restraint and how to balance things better.”
Henry T: “When the homework is just really long and I don’t really want to do it. I normally end up putting it off and end up having 20 minutes before school starts to finish it.”
Do you prioritize one or the other? Why?
Henry F: “School is always first and then after that, it’s rugby. I’m going to Jesuit mainly for school, and my primary focus is to get into a good college so academics comes first.”
Harber L: “Yeah, well schoolwork and studying is first then wrestling and then I try to make time for golf.”
Jack S: “I definitely prioritize my schoolwork over water polo. Water polo is more like a hobby for me, while schoolwork is the most important for my future.”
Grant R: “I try to prioritize school, but I’ve slipped up a few times.”
Luke N: “I try to weigh both equally. Obviously there’s a point where I can’t play tennis for 10 hours a day and not do any of my homework. So you’ve gotta find some sort of balance.”
Grant B: “I would say generally I prioritize school over everything and then I prioritize my sport and then the clubs. I prioritize hope squad and religious Rangers over other clubs because that’s I have the biggest role in those clubs.”
Henry T: “I put AP classes over all other classes.”
Have you ever had to sacrifice one for the other? What led you to that decision?
Henry F: “There was one time I had to choose to go to a barbecue cook or a rugby game. Rugby is my 2nd priority so I chose to go to the game.”
Harber L: “Yeah lately I haven’t really been able to golf. During the summer I golfed a lot, almost every day but now I only golf like once a month. I’ve just been so busy so I really don’t have time to do everything I want, so golf is kind of getting sacrificed.”
Jack S: “I sometimes have teacher meetings so those take priority over water polo practice.”
Grant R: “All the time pretty much. Every day if I have homework or anything important, I’m not doing anything fun, I have to study for a test or finish my revisions.”
Henry T: “I sometimes don’t do homework but there is never really any consequence to that.”
Do you struggle with procrastination and time management? How do you deal with this problem?
Henry F: “I do a little bit, but not as much as other people. I write out what I need to do for the week and then label each night with something I need to work on.”
Harber L: “Lately I’ve been going to Brookhaven to study. I find its easier to study there and I just can’t do it at my house, It just doesn’t work. I just can’t figure out how to do it at my house so I started going to Brookhaven and that has been working really well.”
Jack S: “Yeah, I do, I would say that’s a big struggle for me. Yeah, but how do I deal with that? honestly it’s it’s it is it’s a struggle but you just gotta push through.”
Grant R: “I think if there is something like a test or something important, I can expect that that’s all I’m gonna be doing for the next couple days and just sort of shut off everything else.”
Luke N: “It’s a big thing that I struggle with. When I have homework or something that I don’t want to do, often times I won’t even look at it and just play video games or scroll on Instagram. To fix this, I try to set a schedule for myself to keep from from scrolling mindlessly.”
Grant B: “Yeah, absolutely, as far as time management goes, I can figure out pretty well how long an assignment would take me. I’d say I’m a good procrastinator so that’s why I do it is because a lot of times I can get away with it. It’s still a bad habit and I still do it a lot and I get on my phone a lot but I feel like because I know how long assignments are gonna take me, I can procrastinate and still get my stuff done.”
Henry T: “Yeah, I don’t I suffer the consequences and just catch up on work in the morning or when I get to school.”
Have you ever felt burnt out from all of your commitments?
Jack S: “Yeah, yeah I have felt burnt out at one point definitely.”
Luke N: “I felt burnt out at the end of my sophomore year, especially with all my classes.”
Grant B: “I think it’s kind of inevitable, like it’ll happen no matter what, so yes I have.”
How have you recovered from burnout? What do you suggest to others to prevent that from happening?
Jack S: “I try getting as much sleep as possible and when I have free time, I use that time to hang out with friends and just focus on myself. To prevent this, getting sleep is really important and getting work done during school so you don’t feel stressed when everything piles up.”
Luke N: “You just have to push through it even if you don’t want to do it. You’re going to have to do things that you don’t want to do and you just gotta keep pushing yourself to know that there is an end.”
Grant B: “I would say talk with teachers, meet with them about stuff, talk with counselors. They all can give you plans on how to deal with burnout or find motivation.”
Have you ever felt overwhelmed? What strategies have worked for you in dealing with stress and feeling overwhelmed?
Henry F: “I get overwhelmed when I’m thinking about college stuff. For example, I have to write a college essay and also take care of schoolwork and rugby. But once you actually take it day by day, it’s not that bad.”
Harber L: “I always have plans over the weekend with friends, church, and brunch with my mom. I usually have a test on Monday, so I don’t have time to relax. If I end up scrolling on TikTok for too long, I lose time to study, which can be overwhelming. I’ve noticed I instinctively pick up my phone and just start scrolling on TikTok. So, during study sessions, if I notice I’m slowing down and just picking up my phone more often, I power it off. This helps me stay focused and get things done.”
Jack S: “To help with being overwhelmed, I like hanging out with my dog or just taking a breather when I feel really stressed.”
Grant R: “Yes, especially if I’m not paying attention, because I can be unaware of my schedule and it can catch me off guard. For example, I can have practice and that means I’m not gonna get home till six. If I have a test the next day and homework that’s due and revisions, I get overwhelmed if I start slacking off by playing video games or doing other stuff. So when the time comes, I don’t have time once I finally realize how much I have to do.”
Luke N: “Sometimes I’ll feel overwhelmed and when that happens one of my strategies is I will talk with my teachers because they are there to help you and if you let them know how you’re feeling and what they can do to help. Often times they are willing to to get out of their way to help you.”
Grant B: “There have been weeks where I have a lot going on and usually I can kind of work around it if I just sacrifice a little bit of sleep, but I’d say it’s more stressing out over tests and being like overwhelmed by too many assignments. I would say when you stress out, you tend to actually not do anything and all you do is think about getting things done as opposed to actually getting them done and so the best way to tackle stress is writing everything down that I need to get done and then just get to work right away.”
Henry T: “Not really, but if I ever feel overwhelmed, it’s because I’ve been putting stuff off. I don’t ever really feel overwhelmed by my work.”
How do you motivate yourself to study when you’d rather be doing something else?
Henry F: “I saw this on a TikTok, but if you do the first five minutes of the task, you’re 95% more likely to follow through. If you don’t want to do revisions, you don’t have to do revisions, just open up your laptop and open the tabs for your revisions and if you still don’t feel like doing revisions, which is unlikely, then don’t do the revisions.”
Harber L: “It’s really just I enjoy studying at Brookhaven, there’s just like a sense of satisfaction in finishing my homework there.”
Jack S: “I just think about my future and I just gotta lock in.”
Grant R: “I change my mindset and I tell myself ‘I have to do this, this is something that has to be done.'”
Luke N: “When I’m feeling burnt out and not motivated to work on my homework I just tell myself that ‘I made a commitment when I went to Jesuit, I made a commitment to try my hardest to make the most of this opportunity.’ So I’m gonna make the most of the opportunity by pushing through.”
Grant B: “I like the learning process and I enjoy challenging myself and so anytime that I’m just really not productive, I’ll do one of two things: I’ll just go outside and kind of run around and reset my mind, or I remind myself of the standards I have for myself that I want to accomplish as a student.”
Henry T: “Yeah, if I get a bad grade on something, my parents will be mad and that’s a good motivator.”
Has this extracurricular activity helped you academically or in other parts of your life?
Henry F: “Definitely when it comes to making friends, rugby helped a lot because we travel in a group to games so we’re all really close. It also helped with my time management.”
Harber L: “For wrestling, it has made me more disciplined to get up earlier and not give up on things I otherwise would have.”
Jack S: “I’m getting up really early for practice every day so that helps with discipline. Also teamwork because we play and practice as a team.”
Grant R: “I think they’ve definitely helped with other things besides academics. Sports are good from my resume, other hobbies allowed me to just relax and do fun stuff and made me more happy and less stressed. If I was only devoted to school, if everything was school, practice, SAT, school, practice, SAT, I would not enjoy anything and get burnt out.”
Luke N: “Tennis helps give me a balance between school and sports and makes me more well-rounded. My other extracurriculars like chess and JCL help me with my critical thinking and other things.”
Grant B: “Definitely, I think if I was just pouring everything into school and I wasn’t getting the results that I was expecting, I’d go crazy. The fact that I have a good variety of things and I try to stay pretty well rounded it It really helps me stay motivated because I have a lot of different things I’m putting my time into. Let’s say school isn’t going well, I still have a lot of other things that I can look forward to to keep me motivated, and it keeps everything balanced.”
Henry T: “I mean, it’s made me a bit faster, I don’t know how rugby could help me academically. It’s kind of a stupid question.”
Is there anything you wish you had known about time management or balancing your schedule when you started high school?
Henry F: “That high school gets worse. So during freshman year I thought ‘this is so much more difficult than middle school,’ but then you just have to realize it gets a lot worse. Realize you have to put in the work, so don’t take the free period during sophomore or junior year because it’s gonna be worse.”
Harber L: “I wish I found a place where I could study well, Because there’s just nowhere in my house where I can do work at all.”
Jack S: “I think having a planner honestly was really helpful. I would say use a planner. I wish I would’ve known to get a planner because that was pretty much a lifesaver for me.”
Grant R: “Being very efficient with your time at school and knowing what place works best for studying. For me, when I’m at school I recognize this is where I do work and home is where I don’t work”
Luke N: “I wish I had known that you don’t have to say yes to everything. It’s healthy and important to say no to some things if you don’t have the time for it.”
Grant B: “Honestly, I think my middle school did a really good job of preparing me and I feel like I came in with a good sense of time management and how to organize things. I would say the only thing that I wish I would’ve done better looking back is a lot of times I wait to kick it in until like the last month of the semester and I try and make up a bunch of grades and things get really stressful and so my advice to my past self would be try to keep a consistent effort going throughout the whole semester so you’re not panicking to make anything up at the very end.”
Henry T: “Not to get used to doing my homework in the morning get used to doing it after school. I had no homework sophomore and freshman year after school but I would get a lot more stuff done if I just do it after school instead of trying to get done before school.”
Other comments
Luke N: “School is supposed to be fun it’s not supposed to be extremely stressful all the time, you should have a balance between work and fun.”
Grant B: “I would say challenge yourself and I think it’s a lot better to over schedule stuff and learning how to manage that and then maybe like deduct activities as opposed to over your four years just continuing to add more and more stuff until you feel overwhelmed.”
According to the many interviews conducted, it can be determined that most students face challenges in balancing time between academics, extracurriculars, and personal commitments. While their schedules and strategies vary widely, common threads emerge: the importance of effective time management, the necessity of prioritization, and the occurrence stress or burnout. Most students found that making planner or to-do lists helped them significantly with managing their schedule. However, procrastination, distractions, and overcommitment remain a prevalent issue in most students lives. Another strategy students employed is finding a quiet place that works for them in order to study and work most efficiently. In the end, your own dedication and perseverance is the one thing helping those achieve academic success.
