Time management is a valuable skill for people of all ages, and one of the most important times to focus on this skill is in high school. In high school, students can develop many habits that they will take with them later on in life, some being beneficial and some detrimental, that they will apply to their jobs and work ethic.  

If a student develops the habit of always being late and/or procrastinating on their work and ends up turning in unsatisfactory work, who will want to hire them when they are so unreliable? Thus, why not try to focus on helpful habits you can start incorporating in your life now? 

Dictonary.com states that time management is “the analysis of how working hours are spent and the prioritization of tasks in order to maximize personal efficiency in the workplace.” Being able to conquer this ability effectively can increase enjoyment in one’s life by opening more time for them to do what they would enjoy, while getting done what is important to have completed. This also leads to less clutter physically and mental, thus, making it easier to focus on and complete tasks.  

One way to improve your time management is to prioritize tasks based on importance. According to skillsyouneed.com, “This distinction between urgent and important is the key to prioritizing your time and your workload, whether at work or at home. Try using a grid, like the priority matrix, to organize your tasks into their appropriate categories.” This grid is a very basic, yet efficient, method to decide what is important to spend your time on. It displays that high importance tasks with high urgency, such as finishing a weighted project for a core class, would be a priority over tasks with low importance and low urgency, for instance, catching up on one of your favorite shows. Although, your list will not always stay the same, something else may come up with more importance or something could take less priority and you will have to adjust accordingly. 

Additionally, skillsyouneed.com explains, “Remember, too, that you and your health are important. Just because you have lots to do doesn’t mean that doing some exercise, going for a 10-minute walk or making time to eat properly is not important. You should not ignore your physical or mental health in favor of more ‘urgent’ activities.” With this, the importance of an individual’s physical and mental health would fall under the high importance, and high urgency task depending on the situation.  

If time is needed to gather yourself in order to feel better and more energized, take the time to stay healthy. Although, if you have the ability to complete one more high importance and high urgency task, then you could complete that and take the time for your health after, but do not overestimate your abilities because you think a task is far too important. Good mental and physical health is a major priority, it can dictate your work ethic, thus resulting in possibly unsatisfactory work if not given time to remain in a healthy state.