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"  The first week back since spring break was slammed full with events! All my professors jumped right back into the material that no one bothered to look over during the break, and the workload went from nonexistent to never-ending. It seems as though school has gone into overload! And even though there&amp;#039;s not a ton of free time during the week, there&amp;#039;s always weekends right? Wrong. With practices and competitions for colorguard every weekend, the best time for me to get work done is in-between classes and on evenings during the week. Unfortunately, that&amp;#039;s also the best time to take breaks. So, how does one manage to utilize time AND not go overboard? For one, plan to get work done during free time, but give yourself a time limit. If you&amp;#039;ve got an hour, work for a half hour or forty-five minutes, and then read or take a &amp;quot;power nap.&amp;quot; (My favorite free-time relaxers are reading and coloring!) It allows you to take your mind off of everything school-related and thus, minimize stress.   What else? Decide your bedtime sometime in the afternoon. I know it sounds childish, but if you&amp;#039;re tired and falling asleep while studying, you&amp;#039;re not doing yourself much good, so go ahead and plan to get everything done by a certain time so that your sleep doesn&amp;#039;t suffer. So, for my nineteenth birthday (I was lucky since it was on a Friday, when I don&amp;#039;t have classes!) I planned to use my free time to both get work done AND relax. Yes, I washed my car, and yes I worked on my poem for Poetry, but I also made sure I had time to go shopping with Mom and chill out on the couch with Flapjack (my beagle) before heading to a 9 PM practice with Etude! Best Wishes, Alex!    "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/life/school/advice/a6901/balancing-college-homework/>