The Pros of Extracurriculars

Extracurricular activities are an integral part of most students’ lives. They are an excellent opportunity to keep people busy, help out your school or community, make friends, learn something new, develop a skill; the list goes on. Whether it be sports, music, art, theater, language, the wide variety of extracurricular activities are sure to offer something for everyone. So, if extracurriculars are so amazing in so many different ways, then what could possibly be the problem?    

The Perils of Burnout

Some students can find themselves so committed to a club, sport, or program, that they struggle to keep up with school and their social lives. The problem is Burnout. Burnout is a state of exhaustion that stems from feeling overwhelmed and overworked. Now, burnout doesn’t stem specifically from extracurriculars, but it accumulates and builds up from multiple different factors. There are many different consequences physically, mentally, and emotionally. Dissatisfaction or loss of interest in activities, excessive fatigue, irritability, the feeling of being overwhelmed, a stoop in work quality, even depression all result from burnout. So how do we avoid burnout? There are many habits and strategies that can be incorporated into daily routines to help you make your life even just a little bit more organized. 

Scheduling 

Scheduling is a great method to organize and prioritize your activities. It helps to establish a routine for yourself, and can assist in avoiding schedule conflicts if you have time to plan accordingly. In the case of school, scheduling can allow you to better the arrangement of your academic work, tracking what assignments are due when. By planning ahead, time can be reserved to hang out with friends, and to take breaks. It is an excellent tool for time management, and is a great way to manage a hectic schedule. If you’re going to try scheduling, I also recommend writing down all your assignments into a student planner. It’s much easier to keep track of all your assignments, and it’s very satisfying to cross them off your list once you’ve finished them. 

Be Selective 

With the vast assortment of extracurricular activities to choose from, it can be difficult to decide what to do. You may just want to continue to try new things, and as great as that is, there’s only so much time in the week, and you don’t want to overload yourself with more than you can handle. Committing yourself to an extracurricular requires time and energy. If you are involved in too many extracurricular activities at once, then you won’t be able to effectively put that energy into any one activity, let alone all the other things you may have going on in your life. When deciding what extracurriculars you want to do, choose the ones that interest you the most and work with your schedule best. 

Use Your Time Effectively

Using your time effectively is crucial to maintaining balance. For example, using RAISE time to get assignments done or study for a test. Decisions like these can save you from having to stay up late just to rush through the work, or save you time for other assignments, even freeing up time on the weekends. Procrastination is the antithesis of efficiency, so don’t save assignments for the last minute. Chances are, this will severely degrade the quality of your work. So if you ever find yourself bored, sitting around and doing nothing, try to think of how you could be using this time to be a little more productive. 

Take Breaks

It’s okay to take breaks from time to time. Quick breaks can help you to refresh your brain and refocus on whatever you may be working on. Taking a step back for a water break or maybe a moment to check your emails can help you to recenter yourself, and replenish your energy to better focus on your work. Just remember to take breaks responsibly. A short break doesn’t mean go laze on your phone for half an hour.  

Conclusion

We all have had our days where we’ve just crashed in our beds after an exhaustively busy day (myself included). It’s no fun, so when I thought about the article I was going to write for the magazine, something that may help student’s in this position was something that I immediately wanted to do. Whether you try these out or not is up to you. These are only suggestions, after all. Everybody’s a different person, and what may work for one person may not for others. But if you’re ever feeling burnt out, disorganized, I recommend trying out some of these. After all, what have you got to lose?