6 ways to stay on top of your school work & social life
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When studying a program as demanding as the IB, it can be extremely difficult to get all your school work done and still have time to have fun with your friends, relax in your room or even to get enough sleep… And I won’t lie, one of the most common things I hear people say at school is, “I don’t have time for that!”
Although it does require good time management skills to stay on top of everything you have to do for school while making the most of your time at EF Academy, the good news is that it’s not impossible. And, after reading the following tips, you will definitely become a time-management-pro:
- Plan your studies
Make a schedule everyday before you start studying. For example, if you need to study math and history, you could allocate 1h30 to each subject rather than studying for as long as you can or until you are done. This will help you avoid procrastination since your time is limited and it will prevent you from having to study for a long, undetermined amount of time which could overwhelm you.
- Take notes during class or while studying
Notes are a student’s best friend. Take notes during class or while you are reading your textbook and you’ll see that it will be a lot quicker to revise afterwards and you will then have more free time.
- Do not leave everything until the last minute
This is probably the hardest tip on this list (I know how easy it is to procrastinate), but get your school work done ahead of the deadline because you never know when a teacher is going to give you a major project to do. And if that happens, you are going to end up accumulating a lot to do and won’t have any time for yourself.
- Write reminders
This links to the previous tip because I personally tend to forget about things that I have to do and this helps me avoid last minute work. The solution I found is writing tasks down on a small white board, that I have displayed in my room, as soon as I remember them. This helps me since I’m really bad at using a planner. This could also work with smartphone reminders or with this iOs app that I found called “myHomework.”
- Set a fixed sleeping time
I admit I have problems going to sleep early myself, but I have been trying really hard to go to bed at 11:30pm every day. I think we all know how important sleeping is for your health… But personally, I feel a lot better and much more productive the next day if I have had a good night of rest. This helps me avoid having to go through what I previously learned in class, keeps me on top of my school work and saves me a lot of time as well.
- Allocate some time for having fun!
Friday and Saturday nights are not made for studying! So unless you really have to study, this is when you should be relaxing in your room, reading a book, watching Netflix or going out with friends. If Friday and Saturday nights don’t work for you, at least set out one night during the week where you can do whatever you feel like doing (even if that’s nothing at all).
Written by Ana Luiza, current student at EF Academy Oxford.
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