Being a good student doesn't mean you have to drop everything else. It's possible to have a healthy social life while earning good grades. It's all about balance, young grasshopper.
Instructions
1. Decide for yourself at the start of the term that you won't let schoolwork sweep you away. It's important to have this resolve as a foundation.
2. Plot out your weekly schedule on a grid. Chances are, you'll have small gaps between classes during the week, and longer stretches of free time on the weekends.
3. Focus in on those small gaps, and highlight them on your grid: It's here that you can do bits of schoolwork, leaving the larger weekend gaps free.
4. Set aside at least one large chunk of time each week for free time - maybe all of Saturday, for instance.
5. Make sure that every time you find yourself in one of those between-class gaps, you use the time efficiently: Read a few pages, run some quick errands, spell-check your paper.
6. Keep in mind the law of diminishing returns. Past a certain point, studying harder will yield little. You're better off using that time to hang out with friends.
7. Consider making rituals out of your transitions between school and social time - some people need this. Maybe just a walk around the block will do the trick. You're a student when you start your walk; you're a person when you return.
8. Encourage your friends to follow a similar plan, so you can coordinate your free time with theirs.
Tags: free time, small gaps