How Do New, Busy Schedules Affect Students?

How Do Busy Schedules Affect Students?

It’s no secret that last year wasn’t busy. In fact, most people were scraping to find even a little bit of entertainment, sparking trends such as the sourdough bread trend and at-home DIYs. But now that lives have returned to semi-normal, schedules have gotten busy again. But how are these new schedules having an effect on students? Has the limited amount of free time and sleep resulted in lower grades and higher stress levels? 

For almost two years, we, as a society, have been in an intense lockdown. While some activities and private sports stayed open, the majority of people operated their lives from a computer in their kitchen, including school. Many people, including myself, woke up right as zoom classes started, and had a lot of time to get assignments done, resulting in less stress over work getting done and less stress about grades. 

However, now that we are back in school things have changed. Full-day, in-person school not only takes a lot of physical and mental energy, but it takes a lot of time. Less work time in classes, the start of school sports, and other activities have contributed to schedules becoming full of activities again. Especially for students new to normal middle and high school schedules.

How are these new levels of stress having an effect on students? I myself have experienced a lot of panicked emotions, overthinking, and feelings of guilt when I can’t get everything done. All of these feelings on top of the lack of free time from being a student athlete and lack of energy from waking up early and in person school can be a lot. 

The stress over homework, school, and any other things outside of school can and have contributed to the panic among students. However, there are many things you can do to help. For me, I have found that using a list to keep track of things you need to do can be extremely helpful. Along with this, trying to keep a schedule of when you do homework and when you should go to bed and just planning things out can be a good organization tool. 

Overall, the new stress put on students has caused a lot of panic, but there are tools to help relieve stress. As we start to return to a normal life, the things we were once daunted to attempt will become a part of our daily routines again.