Being a college athlete can at times be hectic and trying to find the time to accomplish everything that needs to be done in a given day can be hard. With so many obligations–school, practice, games, and more–it is important to create your own schedule to follow and ensure that you accomplish all that you can throughout a week, while staying organized. Nothing can fully prepare a recruit for the lifestyle of a college athlete, but learning to schedule out your time can be a game-changer in college. And if you're already a college athlete, these five tips can help you stay on track and reach your goals.

Related: Feel Like Your Sport is a Job? 4 Work/Life Balance Tips For College Athletes

1. Prioritize

Before you even begin creating your schedule, you have to think about what are priorities in your life. What comes first to you? What takes precedent above all else? Are there specific things in your life that you want to make sacrifices for? Many times as a college athlete, your sport and academics are what you make sacrifices for. So make school and sports your top priorities (in that order) and schedule accordingly.

2. Map Out Commitments

Looking at commitments can be a great place to start when creating a schedule. If you start with what is already scheduled for you, it allows you to see what kind of time you have to work with in terms of what your “free time” is. For college athletes, commitments include practices, workouts, meetings, classes, tutoring/study hall, etc. 

As a college athlete your two main priorities are school and your sport. Everything relating to those two areas should come first. Now, if you are a high school student who is going through the recruiting process, that is also included in your first priority area. If you have campus tours, meetings with coaches, or anything relating to your recruiting, that also needs to be prioritized if college athletics is your goal. 

Related: Being a College Athlete is Stressful–Check out These 5 Tips for a Healthy Work/Life Balance

3. Understand That Sacrifices Must Be Made

Creating a schedule that allows you to be a successful college athlete is going to force you to make sacrifices in some areas of your life. For instance, with a full practice, competition, and class schedule, you may not have a lot of time to hang out with friends. If you have an early practice commitment, you are going to have to go to bed early the night before to make sure that you are getting enough sleep. Other sacrifices include possibly missing classes to go to games or tournaments. This means having to make up school work or meeting up with a tutor/teacher at a later time to find out what you missed in class during free time. Be sure to factor these sacrifices into your schedule.

4. Prepare

It is important to schedule out your week ahead of you, not only so you know what you are doing each day, but also to allow you to make adjustments or add to it to make sure that you are making the most of your time. Sundays or Sunday nights can be a great time to look at the schedule for the upcoming week–it allows you to close out your weekend and start the next week off right. Using an agenda or calendar book can help you prepare by giving you somewhere to write out your schedule for each day, homework that you have to do, upcoming projects and events, etc. Just like in sports, preparation is key to scheduling out your time.

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5. Remember Sleep and Self Care

As an athlete at any level, you need to prioritize your sleep and ensure that you are getting enough rest for optimal recovery. Sleep is something that should be added to your schedule–every night you should have a goal of what time you are going to sleep to keep yourself on track. 

Related: 5 Ways to Improve Your Sleep Schedule As a College Athlete

Along with sleep, as a college athlete you need time to relax and recuperate. It is important to take time to unwind, and focus on self-care. This is going to look different for each individual but it could include reading, yoga, watching a movie, getting your hair/nails done, etc. It is important to take some time for yourself in order to not get burnt out and take care of yourself mentally.  Some weeks it may be easier to find time to accomplish this task because you may have a “light” week and not be as busy, but no matter how busy your week is, you need to find time for sleep and self care. 

Creating your schedule allows you to stay focused on what you need to do, but also allows you to make plans. It tells you what days you need to say no to hanging out with friends, while also telling you what days you may be able to make that a priority. 

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* Originally published on February 23, 2023, by Marissa Massaro