BALANCING THE SWING OF SCHOOL AND EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

John is a 300-level medical student who is passionate about contributing to his society and making an impact. Due to his passion, he became a member of the Millennium Fellowship, where he had to carry out a community project to make an impact. This wasn’t quite easy for him as the 300-level is one of the critical levels for a medical student. Looking ahead with a lot of exams and having to carry out his duty as a Millennium Fellow, John had to sacrifice a lot of his leisure time, sleep, plus he is skilled at time management. 

John also had a team he was working with on his millennium project, which made it quite easy to delegate work to others to ease the workload on him. As regards his academic work, he had a reading group, where he brainstormed and could get answers to confusing questions. Though handling both is quite hard for James, he was able to excel and do a great Job in both.

According to Billy Wong, an education professor at the University of Reading, “The university experience extends beyond academic knowledge and a degree certificate. The skills students develop through extra-curricular activities often overlap with those that improve academic success.”  This t

statement implies that although academics is the priority of any student in school, the importance of extracurricular activities in the academic journey cannot be overemphasised; if properly incorporated with other activities, academic excellence will be guaranteed. 

However, if not properly checked, the extracurricular activities, which ought to be an advantage, could also become a burden on academic excellence. Passion and love for extracurricular activities shouldn’t be a detriment to academic excellence. Balancing extracurricular activities with academics can be quite demanding because you have academics to respond to, and academics on their own are quite demanding, but should academics hinder you from contributing to your society? No.

Extracurricular activities are  means for students to build their resilience and leadership skills, they serve as platforms for growth, and means to develop good mental health and well-rounded personalities. 

Education is a basic and major foundation for learning. Deadlines for assignments, writing term papers, preparing for exams, and getting to class early are the little things that come together to build a habit in a student. So, paying attention to ones academics cannot be overemphasised.

Extracurricular activities might seem as though they are not the major focus for being in school, but they help build personal growth. It could be public speaking, volunteering, community services, or student leadership. All these help build leadership skills,  communication skills, and time-management skills and can sometimes help to soothe the burden  of academic stress. It’s essential to balance both and come into full potential as students.

According to a research published on Social Science Exploration (Psychology, Education and Multidisciplinary Perspectives), it was found that increased participation in extracurricular activities is significantly associated with higher academic performance. This shows that aside from extracurricular activities building skills in students, it also enhances their academic performance. Hence, the importance of striking a balance between school and extracurricular activities.

Using the story of James, here are key things to note for balancing both:

Time  Management: You must learn to prioritise things in your life. And this comes with sacrifices as well, you will have to sacrifice your pleasure, so you can bring yourself into full potential. Time management is one of the key ways to balance things. You must know how to manage your time very well, prioritising important things. And along the line, the skill of time management is built in you, which spans beyond your academics into real-life experiences. 

Self-discipline: This is also linked to time management. It is essential to discipline oneself as distractions aside from these activities may arise. Self-discipline helps one to stay focused and be on track. The statement “comfort is not a place for a man who wants to live to his full potential” can’t be overemphasised. Self-discipline erases comfort, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give yourself a good time, but you can’t be a person without discipline and maximise your potential. 

Setting Realistic Goals: Extracurricular activities indeed help personal growth but it’s important to set goals that you can achieve. You don’t have to be everywhere, you just have to be in a place that can enhance your goal. And this requires focusing on activities that align with your goals and values. It is essential to have experiences but experiences are only meaningful when they are impactful. You being everywhere doesn’t mean you will be impactful everywhere. Define your focus, and your goals, and align yourself with things that aid these goals. This is the essence of experiences, to be built and transformed. So, you have to set realistic goals, set goals for academics and be clear about the extracurricular activities you want to be involved in.

Regularly reflect on your balance: Setting a realistic goal is not enough, you have to continuously reflect on your balance. That you are not involved in a lot of activities doesn’t mean it will magically balance. You have to review if the goal set doesn’t affect your academics, and you have to ensure that you strike a balance. 

Laatly, like Jana Kingsford said “Balance is not something you find, it is something you create”. An individual that wants to live to full potential must ensure to create this balance in order to avoid swinging to a side. In other words, your academic pursuits should not stop you from engaging in extracurricular activities.