The Effectiveness of Time Management by Ameren

The Effectiveness of Time Management by Ameren - January 2022 Scholarship Essay

The most beneficial skill that I have strengthened in 2021 that was the most important to my academic success is time management. To be more specific, the fall semester of my senior year of high school just recently came to an end and it was undoubtedly the hardest semester that I have ever experienced. Learning how to properly time manage my tasks saved my life.
I had what felt like a million responsibilities to juggle. I was a full-time high school student, I was/am a competitive dancer who required dance Monday-Thursday in the afternoons and Saturday in the mornings, and I was a high school intern at a local podiatry doctor’s office. At the least, I was busy. I am very grateful for every opportunity that I had last semester, but it came with a lot of energy.
As soon as I was given the internship, I knew that my all-night homework sessions had to come to an end because I knew that when I got home from 12-hour days, I’d knock out sleep on the couch. Part of the reason why I was spending all night doing homework is that I would get distracted by group chats and TikTok. After my schedule got so jam-packed, I knew this needed to change.
I created a planner that I stuck to that was unique to each day’s schedule which helped me stay on task. I also put settings on my phone, iPad, and laptop to limit notifications that come through because if I don’t physically see them, I typically won’t remember to check (for example) my messages if I am busy doing homework. To see all my assignments at a bigger glance, I started printing out the month’s calendar and writing each assignment under the day it is due. I used this calendar to see all school-related events, homework, tests/quizzes, dance-related events, internship-related events, and personal events. This made it easier to decide when I was going to tackle assignments based on what I had going on. Another strategy that I had to stay on task was to set timers for 30-minute intervals. At the end of each 30-minute timer, I’d take a 5-minute break.
After getting used to my new schedules and new study habits, I started completing assignments faster and better. I started seeing an improvement in my grades and my sleep schedule was consistent. Time management is what I needed to rediscover in order to complete the semester strong, and that’s exactly what I did.