School: How to Appreciate It and Use the Time Wisely

School: How to Appreciate It and Use the Time Wisely

By Ava Grace 

Every middle school and high school students' reaction to the first day of school is probably 'Yay! Now we have more structure to our days, instead of just lazing around the house!' But after the first few weeks, our attitude has a tendency to plummet. Not only are we working for forever on homework, but sitting through all those long lectures is incredibly boring. 

But I have a secret to share. 

If we choose to tackle the assignments with vigor, we will accomplish more in less time. And your question may be 'How can I do this?' Well friend, I will answer your question by giving you an example of a normal school day for me, and then explain why this system has worked so well for me. 

My family does school Monday-Thursday, and then we take Friday off and work on household projects on Saturday. On a regular Monday morning, I will set my alarm to 7 A.M. and in the quiet of the morning, read my Bible, pray, and then write in whatever project I am currently working on at the time. Then at 8, I will make my bed and clean my room, get dressed and head downstairs, making myself a nice hot cup of Earl Grey tea. This will give me the energy I need to push through math. 

I work on my writing until 8:30, and then start on math, which usually takes me 30-60 minutes depending on the intensity of the lesson. Then I work efficiently on whatever assignments my mom has laid out for me that day. 

If I work hard without staring off into space too much, I usually finish all my work for the day before lunch. And you say 'Yeah, but I have a ton more work to do than you.' Nope. My assignments are just as heavy as a normal high school student. But I choose to attack my work, seeing how efficiently and hard I can work, with still getting the right grades for each subject. 

Now, why does a schedule like this work? 

I say that it does because I am choosing to not put off the work, and instead work on something I want to work on. Because if I tackle my mountain of lectures and notes, then I will - in the end - have more time at the end of the day. 

How do I know this works?

Because I have seen the fruits of working hard like this and working slowly and drudgingly through the assignments. 

If we commit ourselves to the tasks that have been put before us, and work hard on each subject, we will have more time to do the things we want to do and we will feel better in the end. If I slowly shuffle through the schoolwork, I feel tired and defeated in the end. But if I pace myself and run through the schoolwork, then I feel more energized than I did when I started working at 8:30. 

Keep in mind that you don't want to just rush through the problems, not really caring if the answers are right or wrong. You don't want to just get it done. Because in the end, you'll have to go through again and do it all over. You won't really be accomplishing anything if you work like this. 

So actually work hard and strive to get the problems right, but also do it efficiently. If something is not making sense, I'll go to the next problem and then work back to that one I couldn't figure out. 

So, in the end, if you do this, and choose to work hard with a good spirit, you will have more energy to go and do something that is fun. 

So attack those lectures and pages and pages of assignments. Do it right and do it with vigor.