Pt 1. on how a competitor can manage their time while in school

By Meagan Rodriguez

Time is the only thing that we can’t get back in this fast paced in which we live. From school, work, family, and trying to stay healthy, there never seems to be enough time in the day. As a full time, full—load student with a lot of activities on my plate, how is it possible to find time to prep and compete? It comes down to a dedicated-balance routine between sleeping, training, eating, working, studying, and playing, but not necessarily in that order. My time management has to be precise and calculated or I am not able to get everything in, in one day. I literally live out of my day planner on season, but off season I am a little more lenient. In this article I will give you tools and advice on how to manage your time as a student, so that you can be more efficient with your time and become more organized in order to accomplish your competition goals easier than you may have before.
So you have picked the date for your competition and it is in the middle of the semester…now what? Take a deep breath and relax because going to school, working and prepping for competition is possible! The first thing to do is get a day planner. You need to write everything down and at what times they need to be started and completed. This will alleviate some stress about not having to remember everything in addition to prioritizing your daily responsibilities.
The next things to define and outline are- your top priority elements that must be scheduled consistently every week. The first, and a definite must, is food preparation! Pick one day out of the week (mine is Sunday) to prepare all of your protein and carbohydrates so that you can pack and go without having to cook every single day. Also, put your daily food diary on your fridge so that you can refer to it when prepping. If you do not have a nutritionist guiding you through your preparation, it is helpful to know how to calculate your protein, carbohydrate, and fat ratio. This will determine your daily caloric intake, giving you a food diary to follow.