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Our project is about how to be successful in athletics and academics, while managing our time. With both of us being cheerleaders, we know how important it is to be able to manage time so that we can stay successful in our sport and keep our grades up. Cheerleading is pretty much a year-round sport; we start at the end of July and finish in April. Most athletes get time off from their sport, but we do not. As long as we are cheering, we will have homework at the same time. Our schedules are not just our own, we have to cheer for football and men’s & women’s basketball. So, we have to practice for our own routine, and we have to attend these games. On top of this, we have to manage classes, homework, and our jobs. This is important to first year students because most of the people who attend UPIKE actually play a sport.

According to the article, “Managing Time,” there are seven ways to manage your time. These include:

• Accept the fact that you have things to do
• Create a schedule
• Allow yourself more time than expected to get things done
• Plan before doing research to use less time than expected
• Avoid procrastination and distraction
• Exercise in your free time
• Allow time to relax with friends and family

When you accept the fact that you have to actually do your work, it is easier to make yourself finish them. Scheduling your time is important, so that you can make sure you have enough time to get all of your work done, while leaving time to relax. When you overestimate the time you need to do an assignment, you can finish it earlier than you thought you would, which can relieve stress and anxiety you may have had about getting it done. Avoiding distraction and procrastination is probably the most important item on this list. Procrastination causes so much unnecessary stress in your life. Doing things last minute cause you to rush and not do your work to its fullest potential. If you finish most of your work before it is actually due, you have time to do anything you need. It is easiest to do a little bit of work at a time. When you come back to a paper, for example, the next day with fresh eyes, you can make adjustments as needed. Waiting until the last minute does not leave any time to make adjustments to your assignment. Also, when you allow time to relax with friends and family, that can help to relieve stress.

An additional piece of advice for managing time is to never be afraid to ask for help. Everyone struggles sometimes and it is important to know that you are not alone. You can ask your coach for help or advice if you are struggling with certain skills at practice. You can talk to them about possibly scheduling different practice times so that it is easier for you to attend study groups or having more time to do homework. This also works with asking for help in your classes. Do not be afraid to talk to your teacher about your class if you are actually struggling. Your teachers never feel bothered when you ask them for help. They would actually prefer you do, they like to know that you have an understanding of the topics in class.

Being a student-athlete takes a lot of dedication and passion. We understand just how hard it can be to juggle school along with sports. Being a successful student athlete means managing your time. You need to get schoolwork done and not procrastinate so when you are at practice you can only focus on your sports. Being a student-athlete is knowing how to separate your schoolwork and your sport while still being successful in both. According to the article, “Creating a Successful Student-Athlete” athletes are very passionate about their sport or they would not choose the institution they did. So, with this in mind, academic advisors must continually integrate the student’s athletic passion into the schoolwork. Their passion of sports will eventually carry over to their learning goals.

We chose this project because we know that there are a lot of student athletes that attend UPIKE. For freshman, it is hard to figure out how to manage your time while being a successful student and athlete, so we wrote about our experiences and other interesting ways to manage time.