Finding balance between sport and education requires a team approach. With the right help and communication from all parties involved, athletes can benefit from playing a sport, while still enjoying a quality academic experience.
The most important skills that support effective balancing:
- Time Management Skills
- Stress Management Skills
- Active Study Skills
Time Management Skills are the first group of important abilities and tools that help athletes find a balance between sports and education.
Effective time management requires focusing on key strategies:
- Personal goal setting – essential for effective time management; provides direction and a vision to work towards, goals help prioritize time and other resources, setting goals offers long-term vision and short-term motivation;
- Prioritizing – effective prioritizing helps to become more efficient in work and education; it saves time, energy, and reduces stress; organizing tasks into distinct categories and levels of difficulty;
- To-do lists – ensures that all tasks are organized and prioritized; allows focus on what needs immediate attention; by listing tasks from most to least important, we can reduce stress and increase reliability, knowing that nothing essential is overlooked; both paper lists and software-based tools are useful;
- Scheduling – keeps us on track to accomplish our goals; helps us plan what we want to achieve in a day, week, or month by scheduling high-value work during our peak time and low-energy tasks during our ‘down’ time;
- Managing distractions – a key to achieving a state of flow, where work feels satisfying and effortless; to stay fully engaged, it’s essential to control interruptions by turning off or putting away electronic devices and communicating with others about minimizing disruptions;
- Avoiding procrastination – procrastination happens when we delay tasks we should be doing in favour of more enjoyable activities; this creates a gap between our intentions and actions, leading to guilt and anxiety as deadlines approach; it’s crucial to recognize it early, understand why it’s happening, and take steps to address the underlying causes.
How can a COACH or MANAGER support an athlete in proper time management?
- Identify sports and educational priorities;
- Remind athlete of the benefits of a #DualCareer;
- Communicate with all stakeholders, including parents, teachers, other coaches, and the athlete’s peers;
- Support athlete in learning time management skills and strategies;
- Encourage athlete to use available resources;
- Watch for warning signs of a problem.
In the upcoming news, we will take a closer look at Stress Management Skills and Active Study Skills.