Taking the Time to Make Time by Elora

Taking the Time to Make Time by Elora - January 2022 Scholarship Essay

High School students are consistently given the advice to learn to manage time and eliminate the time I spend procrastinating. Like most of my peers, I heard this warning and failed to follow through. My parents, teachers, and many mentors all told me to pay attention to how I was managing my time, but each time I did not make an effort to adjust my schedule or concentrate where I devoted my time. As I went through the 2021 school year, I realized that I needed to heed this warning and put into action a plan before my schedule became overbooked and did not leave enough time for my school studies. I realized that I needed to work on my time management skills during my time at the Central Virginia Governor's School. My professors began my junior year telling each student that we would be using our time in their classes to prepare for a college classroom setting and the first skill we should learn was time management. This skill would come to most students differently or at different times in the first at CVGS, but most students would learn this skill before heading to a four-year college or university. My first semester was quiet as I was adjusting to the new environment of the governor's school. Once we came back from winter break in 2020, I quickly began to understand the message my teachers had tried to explain to us at the beginning of the year. The workload and difficulty of the courses began to increase in conjunction with starting internships, presentations, and preparation for finals at the end of the year. Additionally, many of my orchestra and band rehearsals began to practice in-person again. I realized I was in the exact position my teachers had warned me about earlier in the school year. While this was a challenging time for me at first, I was able to find different ways to manage my time. I began by creating a personal schedule of all school assignments, extracurricular activities, and work hours that included noting each event as time sensitive or important. Creating a plan was simple but I also needed to break my habit of procrastinating or wasting my time on unimportant tasks. To break these habits, I began by giving myself a small amount of time each day to still work on these unimportant tasks, aside from my new routine. As I began following my plan, I found I was able to focus more and accomplish more tasks because I put emphasis on doing assignments the first moment I was not at work or rehearsals, rather than waiting. I also found that using my less valuable tasks as an incentive, I was more motivated to begin and complete assignments, rather than pace myself over multiple days. Learning to manage my time has helped me as I entered my senior year of high school and worked on college applications. I still use this technique as I have learned how it will benefit me in managing my classes and extracurricular activities in college. Though using this skill has become concrete, I still adjust the way I manage my time as my schedule for school and activities is still changing. Learning to not waste time in 2021 was stressful as a student at first but the benefit has helped improve my grades and allow for more time devoted to preparation for the future.