Use Your Time Wisely by Brooke

Use Your Time Wisely by Brooke - January 2022 Scholarship Essay

2021 was a very interesting year for many reasons. It was the second year of the pandemic, the second year of doing online school, and the second year of mask wearing. For my personal home life, I was a fully remote student in the 2020-2021 school year and it taught me many things. I spent the whole school year doing class in my bed, at my kitchen table, and outside on my deck. It was something I never expected to happen during my high school years and it gave me a new perspective on school. It gave me a lot of time to try and use different techniques to improve my education. The skill that I learned during that year that has helped me with my academic success is time management.
Time management was never a skill I had prior to having to do remote school. I did my assignments super late at night or waited until the last minute to do them. I adopted these behaviors in high school. When I was remote I loved doing my work right when I got it because it gave me more time in the day for myself. Being in person now, I still use the time management skills I learned last year to help me manage my time because now I spend 6 hours a day in my high school. Doing my work right when I am assigned gives me time to perfect it before it's due instead of being in a rush. Improving my time management has also improved my mental health. My anxiety has decreased significantly because I do my work early. Whenever I would do it late I would become very anxious and stressed and not be able to sleep. Since I prioritize my mental health I knew I needed to find a way to do my work early. I also believe my time management skills I learned have improved my grades because I do not rush my work anymore.
Although the pandemic was not ideal, and still is not ideal, it has taught me a lot about myself and how to improve my academics. If not for last year, I’d still be procrastinating and leaving all my work off. Being able to prioritize school last year was very beneficial and helped my gpa quite a bit. I would say remote school was good for me and I did learn a lot. I learned more than school content, I learned important skills and how time management improves not only my grades but my mental health.