Many students struggle with completing their homework effectively, and they blame it on things like school starting times resulting in their lack of sleep rather than confronting the problems that they are creating themselves. The reason why these students have trouble completing their homework at a reasonable time is often because they are not managing their time as efficiently as possible.

The problems start at school when students get into the habit of doing things they would rather do than spend time working on their homework. For example, many students use free periods as a time to play video games, watch YouTube videos, or talk to friends instead of using their time wisely and completing their homework on the night it is assigned.

A simple change of using free periods and tutorials better could drastically improve a student’s situation.

After going to after school activities and then spending hours of time not working on homework students leave it until the last minute, sometimes even the day the assignment is due, to complete it. This causes them to stay up much later than they should to complete their homework and causes school-related stress.

To learn and perform well during school, students need time to sleep. But worse, this cycle of sleeplessness and stress can lead to a growing dislike of school itself.

The longer a student is in this cycle the harder it is to get out of it. The action of doing the schoolwork becomes more and more disliked, and stress takes over.

Psychologically, when a student knows that they will be unhappy while completing the action, the less likely they are to want to do it. They will just spend their time making themselves feel better by doing things they like to do in their free time like watch television or play video games. In the process they leave the homework to the last minute, and will not do the best they could.

Also, when students rarely complete homework on the night it is assigned, it does become difficult to get help with homework. In a class like math, where going to see a teacher can be the difference between completing and not completing a homework assignment because they don’t know how.

Participation in an afterschool activity is a great way to have a break in between the school day and homework time. Scientifically, it has been shown that having an active break can help you to focus and complete your homework better.

To fix this problem, students should learn to use their time more wisely in the parts of the school day which are designed specifically for school work. Though it may be tempting to watch something on Netflix, or play a favorite video game, school is important.

Homework completion and time management are very necessary for success at school because they can ultimately increase time for sleep and decrease the amount of stress. After students are finished with all their homework they can kick back and spend their time however they like without feeling an ounce of guilt.