Time Management Tips for Dancers!

       Hey, guys! Me again! Hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving breaks. In the spirit of the holiday season, I would just like to say that I am incredibly thankful for my family, my friends, my teachers (at school and dance), the standards of my education, the opportunities that my studio gives me, my studio as a whole, and my health and ability to dance and train as hard as I do.

Mini-me on Thanksgiving 7 years ago!

       As any dancer -any athlete, for that matter- will tell you, it’s not easy to get up at an ungodly hour, sit at a desk and waste time, go straight from sitting to warming up and practicing, then coming home late with piles of homework and chores waiting for you in a messy room that you never have time to clean, needing to eat, shower, and –oh, yeah- sleep.

      Fortunately for me, I've found some pretty good tips, and I’m going to share them with you. They’re from Toni Branner's The Care and Feeding of a Dancer. I know, it makes us sound like we’re pets or something. I’m pretty sure we own a book with the same title about caring for your Labradoodle. But she’s got some great tips. You can but her book on amazon here.

Time Management for Dancers

1.  First thing when you get home from dance, no matter how late it is, make yourself a snack. Doing this as soon as possible will help replace the glycogen in your muscles, and you’ll feel better in the morning. And I’m sure we’ve all heard that you should never eat a large meal late at night because it won’t metabolize as well, blah blah blah. As long as you’re not stuffing yourself to the gills, you’ll be ok. I recommend a smoothie or some oatmeal.

2.  Assess your homework situation and prioritize. One tip that I have found particularly helpful is Branner’s A-B-C prioritizing system. As are the things that absolutely have to be done tonight, Bs would be awesome if they could get done, but they can be worked on tomorrow or at school, and Cs are the things that you wish you had time for, but they can wait for the weekend. I use different colored highlighters in my planner to organize these.

3.  Take a shower. For me, this usually gets done almost as soon as I finish eating, because if I’m showering at 11:30, it keeps my whole family up. But some people like to shower last. Either way, it’s pretty straight-forward.

My desk

Control center, where I can see everything that needs to get done.

        In order for these tips to work for me, I like to make sure that my work space is organized. Mostly because I’m a little bit OCD, but also because it just makes life easier. I also get a lot of my homework done at school. We have a study hall right after first period, and when we don’t have a required activity during that hour, I use it to knock out some reading or study with friends.
          In order to keep myself from wasting too much time on Facebook or Instagram, I limit myself to 10 minutes of it before I start my homework, but after I prioritize. I’ve also found that if I try to do my homework with music on, it takes me twice as long to do, because I’m easily distracted.

        I hope these tips help you guys, and I hope you’re having a great holiday season! If you want to see what I’m up to, check out my Instagram here and be sure to comment down below telling me how you’re celebrating!

         
~Savanna