So, you have a young, ambitious student-athlete who’s trying to balance, school, sport, and social life. How can you help them find success and happiness throughout this process?
Productivity and time management is everything.
“I wish there was more than 24 hours in a day!”
“I need more time!”
Sound familiar?
We can all use some time management and productivity reminders. Believe it or not, making some minor adjustments here and there can call for some major impacts and magically add a few hours to the day. It just requires some self control, discipline, and accountability.
It would be a great bonding experience to take this on alongside your athlete and figure out ways to make efficient use of your time together. Showing them that it is not just something dealt with as a young, ambitious student-athlete, but also a part of everyday adult life too.
We recently posted a weekly exercise to challenge our followers to take control and create their own balance on a weekly basis. Instead of thinking long term and trying to manage life bucket fluctuation, we shifted the conversation to thinking just two weeks ahead. The objective is to adjust time devotion toward accomplishing a top priority goal, arriving at that destination with success, and then doing it all over again.
Share this with your athlete!
Tips for balancing school, sport, and life
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Organize your day
There are many tools out there that are great for organizational methods. Google calendars being one of them. There is also the old fashion method of keeping a notebook planner and writing everything down. Although these are the most ideal for small tasks and daily routines, they are great for events, tests, games, and other big priorities.
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Prioritize
There should never be a night your athlete does not sleep due to “too many” tasks to accomplish during a given day. Instead, what are some things that can be taken away from a day to be sure what NEEDS to be accomplished is done and sleep is not lost? Maybe that means turning down a social event, there will always be another!
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Work Ahead
In some situations, working ahead can take away a lot of the stresses of trying to play catch up. This may require some time set aside on a weekend, but if your athlete has a big travel competition coming up and a test or an assignment due the next week, buckling down for a few extra hours is worth the peace of mind.
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Don’t plan more than you can handle
Saying “no” is tough. Especially when it is saying no to something fun with friends. During busy times, it’s a good time to practice saying no. The day by day approach is great for this.
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DON’T FORGET TO REST
We as humans love being busy bees. We love to feel like we can do everything and anything at any time, even if our energy batteries are running low. Schedule time in your calendar for self care and rest. Without it, arriving at your best will become more and more difficult.
Original article posted on rise-athletes.com