By Carol Trehearn, Special for USDR
For those students who decide to undertake joining a sports team at college it can be quite difficult creating the perfect balance between studying for your course, playing the sport you love, socializing with friends, and maybe even a job, but it is a necessary aspect of college life … plus it prepares you for proper adulthood, having to sacrifice what you want to do for the boring day to day stuff we all have to muddle through.
Prioritize
This is the hardest part, but you need to learn to prioritize your sport and your studying over anything else. If you’re clever you should be able to maintain a good sport/school balance along with everything else you want to be doing with your time. It can be easy to let the studying fall by the wayside because it’s not as fun as everything that’s going on, but make sure you keep that at the top of your priority list.
Schedule
If you’re struggling keeping your priorities straight, then write up a work schedule. This way you can break down your lectures, your sport practice, your parties and socialization, as well as your studying (or active learning as people try and call it now) which will mean that you should always be able to find the time to do everything. This is the most effective way of balancing your time.
Weekends
Weekends are godsends, so don’t let them go to waste. Unless you have a part time job, these two days will be free of all college (except parties, but that will be at night) and so are perfect times to catch up on any studying you’ve let slip whilst you’ve been batting and tackling and kicking and swimming or whatever sport you choose to follow.
Procrastination
Procrastination is the enemy and you need to learn the signs of when a bout of procrastination is coming on and learn how to resolve it. The best way is to reward yourself when you successfully avoid procrastination. If you feel like you need to fiddle online watching pointless YouTube videos or stalking your friend’s ex on Facebook and you resist the urge, then treat yourself to something you wouldn’t normally allow and hopefully your brain will start to condition itself to become immune to procrastination.
You Have To…
Simple, isn’t it? You haven’t really got a choice, if you want to play sports, then you have to learn how to make it work. College is about the degree and the qualifications, not about the sports, but the sport side of it can be very rewarding and so make sure you work hard and follow the hints I’ve given you in this article. Also, good to bear in mind though, that if you came through a scholarship agency like Athletes-USA, then you will need to make both the priority, otherwise you might find yourself booted off the program for next year and have to pay the full fees yourself!
0
0
