Everybody says that time goes by fast in high school, but that seems especially true for students now. After a worldwide pandemic and a sudden schedule change all in the midst of three years, students have had a hard time managing their lives this year. 

Many students on a daily basis have to deal with homework, extracurricular activities and sometimes a job after a full seven-hour day at school. This leaves very little time to wind down from their day full of stress and can become very draining after doing it for months at a time.

“As a student-athlete, I’m already busy,” sophomore Eliana Johnson said. “My typical day is go-go-go from 7:30 in the morning until at least five at night. If I have a sporting event, I usually get home around nine at night and am so exhausted and burnt out from the day I simply don’t have the mental capacity to do four classes worth of homework, let alone six. Because I’m so drained from the day’s activities, I push back my homework later and later, hoping I’ll find a little spark of energy left within me. This tactic leads me to rush through my homework during my free time in other classes when students are socializing.”

Procrastination seems to be another obstacle students are running into this year. Adding more work to do at home combined with the widespread procrastination problem many students are facing after the pandemic has only produced a higher chance that students will fall behind. 

“I think COVID made everybody a procrastinator,” said teacher Rita Stricklin. “The idea was like ‘Oh, I can just put it off, I can put it off’ and then suddenly assignments are due and students are left scrambling.”

The combination of not wanting to do assignments and not having enough time to do them leaves students stressed when they are due. Teachers gave students a lot of grace periods during the pandemic to adjust to online learning, but this collective idea of having time to do assignments has left students to put off doing their work until it’s too late. 

Many students feel that one of the main contributions to this newfound time management crisis is the new schedule change that was implemented this year. The schedule change was made to merge the high school and middle school to the same schedule, but from it came more work than high school students are used to. Having more classes with less time created more homework for students who had no transitional period to get used to this huge change in the way they spend their time. 

“After the schedule change I am procrastinating way more,” senior Michael Armstrong said. “I don’t have any time to do homework at home. It’s making me miserable.”

Many students have similar feelings about the schedule change. In a survey sent around the school, 58.3% of students said that they were already falling behind this school year and 83.3% said that the schedule change had a negative impact on their school day and workload. The general consensus is that students are struggling to find time to succeed in all aspects of their lives. 

Dealing with such drastic changes as a student can become unmanageable and overwhelming. Not being able to make time for things you enjoy can lead to higher levels of stress which can turn into serious health problems. Making time for all aspects of life is an important lesson students need help learning. 

Relearning time management and focusing on the well being of students is the best way to fix this problem. Taking the time to destress and manage all priorities can lead to a healthier school environment and happier students.