You finally finished high school, passed your college entrance exams, and chose the college you will enroll in. Another great thing is that you have been given the opportunity to avail of scholarship for athletes.
You are thrilled, but simultaneously nervous upon entering the college campus, you have no idea what to do next. You first visit your coach and he or she told you that practice starts early in the morning.
After seeing your coach, you subsequently go on to class. As a summary, the first day was not too bad, no assignments, no formal lectures, just plain introduction of the topic and course curriculum.
Next day, you awake early in the morning, refreshed and ready to train. The coach gives you a hard time, and you tell yourself that it is only natural for coaches to give newbie’s a hard time.
After training, you go to your dorm to get ready for your classes. You are jerked into shock when you attend your first class, the professor who seemed so nice turns out to be your worst nightmare. The professor gives each of the students a 1500 word essay with a short deadline, and you tell yourself that you can manage. On the next class, the situation gets worse.
After finishing the class, you then go over the field and make friends with the other athletes, everyone is talking about party on that night and they invite you to go. Naturally, since you wish to make an impression and seek their acceptance, you accept their invitation immediately.
In the party, a thought occurs to you that you still have that 1500 word essay to work on. However, you think that you can still manage and the deadline is not that short.
After the party, you’re tired and return to your dorm room, and as if all the things you experienced on that day wasn’t enough, your roommate is also having a small party in your dorm room. The music is loud, you can't study or sleep and the place is a complete mess.
You then wake up worn out and stressed out, you go to the practice field late, and your performance is the worst performance in your entire life and adding to your poor performance is the thought of the 1500 word assignment still undone. Your coach is angry with you because of your performance, he gives a hard time and tells you to stay and clean up the locker room.
At last, you finish cleaning the locker room and you go to your first class of the day as fast as you can, but still, you arrive to class late. Your professor, as a punishment, doesn't let you into the class because of your tardiness.
What is worse is that the professor is giving tips on how to write about the essay. You think about failing the class but that would mean your athlete scholarship would be revoked.
All these may seem far fetched but such situations do happen to college athletes. They should have a more sophisticated time management techniques. Being admitted to college is quite easy. The hard part is effectively using your time to accomplish all the activities you are committed to, and never affecting your studies.
Many students in college find it challenging to successfully manage their time between studies and other extra-curricular and social activities. It is especially so for college athletes. They got to undergo stressful trainings and cannot afford to lapse in their schoolwork as they have to keep their scholarship.
The sudden spike in responsibility is very shocking for college students, especially freshmen and college athletes. You just have to study harder and train harder because of the new level of competition.
You may be the track star back in high school, but in college, many competitors can easily beat your record in high school. You have to train more diligently to keep competing in your sport.
The following are several time management tips for college athletes:
One of the priorities you should include in your time management planning is study time. You have probably done it before back in high school, but it is slightly different in college. It will be a lot harder as you have less time for studying.
As an athlete in college, you can get conflicts on your match schedules and your classes or even exams. Colleges offer tutors for college athletes to avoid missing their classes and school matches.
Go talk to your professor about your schedule and he or she might consider transferring you to another class with the same subject at another time.
When you usedevelop effective time management strategies, you will definitely have sufficient time for your trainings, matches, study time, socializing, and your personal life.
