Whether your goal is to get all A’s, get a 36 on the ACT, or to get into Harvard, it’s important to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Many times, students will hone in on their goals for a short time before burning out.

Other times, they will prioritize having fun and forget about their goals entirely.

It seems impossible to achieve this perfect balance between school and life.

And yet, there are people who have done just that.

You don’t have to make a choice between the two.

Let’s dive into how to maintain a school-life balance so you can achieve your goals and have fun while doing it.

Step 1: Define your goal Setting goals is essential not only in school, but in life.

However, not everyone is good at this.

When setting goals for high school, ask yourself if your goal meets these requirements.

Specific: Consider whether your goal is specific enough.

It's not enough to say, “I want to do well in school. ” How will this goal be measured?

How will you know whether you have achieved this goal?

A more specific goal would be, “I want to get all A’s this quarter,” or “I want to maintain a

3. 7 GPA. ” Setting specific goals will make it easier for you to understand what you really want to achieve.

Realistic: Your goal must be realistic.

It's not realistic to say, “I want to cure cancer. ” While you may want to do this, it’s unrealistic to assume that you will achieve something that has puzzled scientists for ages, especially in high school.

A more realistic goal would be, “I want to perform cancer research through research programs or cold-emailing professors. ” While this is very ambitious, it is attainable.

High schoolers have done formal research projects before and won prestigious science fairs.

Many times, students will set such lofty goals that they don’t know where to even start.

There is a difference between big dreams and impossible ones.

When setting a goal, consider whether you can realistically achieve this.

Step 2: Outline steps to achieve your goal Once you have your goal, you have to set smaller steps to achieve this goal.

Set smaller, quantifiable subgoals that let you see whether you are getting closer to achieving your main goal.

In this way, you can further refine your goal to demonstrate exactly what you need to do to achieve this goal.

For example, if your goal is to get an athletic scholarship for basketball, you can outline the following steps.

Step 1: Get on JV (Junior Varsity) Step 2: Get on Varsity Step 3: Become the top scorer on my team Step 4: Email coaches and gain connections Step 5: Attend summer camps Furthermore, you can outline exactly what you need to do to achieve each step.

Workout every day at 5 AM before going to school Attend every practice after school Practice dribbling, handling, shooting, and team plays Maintain a

3. 0 GPA to stay eligible for athletic scholarships You can then refine your initial goal. “I want to earn an athletic scholarship for basketball by attending every practice and working out to improve my strength and technique. ” Creating smaller steps lets you know exactly what you need to do to achieve your goal.

Step 3: Create a schedule to form healthy habits Goals alone will not help you.

As the famous quote goes, “The person who loves walking will walk further than the person who loves the destination. ” It is better to be system-oriented than goal-oriented.

What this means is that you need to build a set of routines and habits to achieve your goal.

Every week, get into the habit of writing a schedule.

Within this schedule, you can outline exactly what you want to do at exactly what time.

This way, you can split up your time between what you have to do, and what you want to do.

It’s important to structure your schedule in such a way where you don’t get overwhelmed with too much work.

A good rule of thumb is to have a ten-minute break for every hour of work.

Treat these breaks as a reward for the hard work that you did earlier.

For some, this may be a YouTube video, for others, a snack from the fridge.

Treating these breaks as rewards will help motivate you to finish the work that you have to do.

Daily Schedule Here’s an example schedule for someone who wants to get all A’s this quarter. 6:30 AM: Wake up and go to school 8:00 AM

- 3:00 PM: School 3:00

- 3:30 PM: Relax before doing school work 3:30

- 4:30 PM: Work on English presentation 4:30

- 4:45 PM: Break 4:45

- 5:45 PM: Study for physics exam on rotational dynamics 5:45

- 6:00 PM: Break 6:15

- 7:15 PM: Study for the ACT 7:15

- 9:00 PM: Dinner, shower, chores, etc. 9:00

- 10:00 PM: Practice piano 10:00 PM: Sleep Notice how breaks are scheduled within working blocks, and how there is ample time left to pursue other hobbies and responsibilities.

Weekend Schedule You should also utilize your weekends wisely.

You can use these two days as a split between work and fun.

I recommend that you use Saturday to relax and recover from the grind, and Sunday to get back into the mind state to start working again.

This will help you maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Saturday: Hang out with friends, go to concerts, play video games, and relax Sunday: Finish any assignments, work on any projects, and study ahead You must train your brain to follow this schedule to a T, so you can maximize the time that you have given yourself to complete a task.

Of course, your schedule will look different every day, depending on what you have to do and what your goals are.

Check out Rishab Jain's video on how to achieve your goals by focusing on the system.

PlayHow to ACTUALLY Do Well in School (from a Harvard student) Step 4: Surround yourself with the right people Working towards a goal becomes infinitely easier when you surround yourself with friends who encourage and support you every step of the way.

Surrounding yourself with friends who slack off and foster bad habits will influence you to do the same.

In contrast, if you surround yourself with driven, ambitious people like yourself, you will be encouraged to keep up with them.

This doesn’t mean that you have to stop being friends with anyone who doesn’t directly benefit you.

In fact, this is strongly discouraged.

You can still hang out with them every once in a while, but the majority of your time should be around people who help you become a better person overall.

To truly achieve your goals without having to give up the fun, you must set strong goals.

You must also set up systems of habits and routines to help you achieve these goals.

Create schedules to precisely outline what you have to do each day, and use your weekends to relax and recover.

Lastly, surround yourself with people who will encourage you to become a better person.

Join the Discord to achieve your goals with us!

If you’re looking for a community of ambitious, hardworking students to help you achieve your goals, check out the Rishab Academy Discord Server.

With knowledgeable members and a constant flow of opportunities, you will be sure to find all the answers to your questions: whether it’s school, scholarships, research, or life.

Join the growing Discord community here: https://discord. com/invite/yrGNBFU7.