By Jojo Loxton, NHEHS Sports Captain

After the brilliant extra-curricular fair last month, a lot of girls have thrown themselves into loads of clubs, which is great but can cause issues if you don’t manage your time properly. 

However, playing sport at school has been proven to be one of the best ways to learn time management skills and has definitely helped me.

So, here are my ten top tips for time management:

Pack your school bag the night before – this allows your mornings to be super smooth and easy so you don’t have to be in a rush. It should also help you to be more organised, so you don’t forget anything.

Use dead time productively – ‘dead time’ is where you don’t do anything at all, for example the time when you are travelling to school. If you feel like you need a break, try listening to music instead of looking at social media so you can fully relax. If you need to be revising, try bringing small flashcards with you so you don’t lose this precious time!

Turn off all social media at 9pm – it’s likely that your days will be super busy so it’s really important you get a full night’s sleep and turning off devices at nine can really help.

Plan your time so that if you are busy after school you can study at lunch – if you have a match in the evening and then you are going straight to training, there probably won’t be much time for homework. If you plan your time ahead you and a friend could grab a packed lunch and go to the library at lunch to try and make sure you get some of your work done so it doesn’t pile up.

Give yourself time to eat – make sure you give yourself time, both in the morning and at lunch, to properly refuel your body. It’s really difficult to run around doing a million clubs and lessons on an empty stomach!

Talk! – it’s so important to keep coaches, teachers and parents in the loop about how your feeling. Sometimes it’s hard to juggle everything all at once so communication with those around you can really help you and them to understand what’s going on.

Plan out your week so you can visually see where you have time and where you don’t – on Sunday evenings, plan out the week ahead of you. I use a weekly planner that I write down all my meetings, training, matches etc on so I can see what I’ve got when, this can help you plan time to socialise with friends and know what time needs to be spent working.

Know when to take a break – You need to make time for you, time to fully relax and switch off, when you aren’t with anyone, when you’re not doing work, not on social media. It’s really important to be able to identify when this is for you. Especially for athletes, when your muscles are sore after training and you just need an hour to yourself, I would recommend a bath, it’s relaxing and soothing for your muscles!

Avoid procrastination – it can be really difficult, but if you’ve only got a couple of hours to get your work done, you need to devote your full attention to that. Put your phone away and spend that time working but make sure you reward yourself at the end!

Make a short To-Do List – To-Do lists have got to be achievable otherwise they can just stress you out more. Try not to put more than 7 things on your list and use the time that you do have available wisely!

At NHEHS we have the opportunity to experience so many different clubs so make sure you make the most of it!

If you are struggling to balance it all, there are always people that want to help, from form tutors to big sisters or you could even come and catch me, we have all been through it before and can lend a helping hand.