Being an athlete, time management is something that can be very important to success in and out of the classroom.

For starters, as a college football player, there are about 4 hours a day dedicated to football.

Combine that with the average 15 credits taken per semester, and a student athlete at Wilkes University can find themselves putting in a workload of 40 hours a week of class, practice and meeting times not including studying for classes or extra work put in on the field.

From personal experience, I would say the most difficult part of managing time in-season is finding a way to get all your work done and finding time to get enough hours of sleep every night.

For example, football practice ends at 10:00pm on Tuesday night. By the time you shower up and get changed, it is about 10:30. When you get back, you have to immediately go to bed or you won’t get a good night of sleep.

The following morning, most position groups have meetings at 7 a.m. Following the 7 a.m. meetings, I have a 2 hour break before class at 11 and 12, then another 2 hour break to grab lunch and possibly get more work done.

After my 2 o’clock class, I have to go right over to football for a 2 hour practice. At 6 o’clock, you get out of practice and have the rest of the day to get my work done or relax.

From the outside looking in, it may seem difficult to succeed in school with so much time dedicated to an extra-curricular.

However, it can actually be quite the opposite. With such a tight schedule, any window that can be used for studying has to be used.

When you are not in season or don’t play a sport, you always feel as though you will have time to get work done, so it can get continually put off.

This being my 4th year at Wilkes playing a sport, I have never once had a better GPA out of season than I did in-season.

Some solid pointers for managing your time in-season are to be flexible, make the most out of your free time, utilize a daily planner, and know your limits and how much you can handle.