What does your week look like so uh I have school and then after I have conserv and then after that I'm working so I train eight times a week I do two gym and two pilat sessions then Wednesdays I'll have school and then U concert choir and then the New Zealand tour choir which I'm in swimming Thursday morning Pilates Thursday night.
Swimming Friday morning swim Friday night and swim and gym Saturday morning I do go to school yes I do a little bit of that as well maybe do one Amelia is an elite swimmer right now she's training for Nationals where she'll be swimming the 50 100 and 200 M breaststroke and at the state champs last week she swam an Olympic qualifying.
Trial time so yeah she's pretty good swimming is a very demanding sport I think I've found sort of with friendship groups so they might be going out on a Friday night and I'll have to say look I've got training got training tonight and I've also got it early tomorrow morning so I can't come out Michelle is a musician she plays saxophone flute.
Sings in a jazz Choir This choir is going to the world choir games in New Zealand I mean there's not a lot she doesn't do this week every all the assignments are du uh so that can get quite overwhelming uh juggling like getting work done and then working as well as practicing everything all of this is a lot of.
Responsibility and while they don't want to change their busy schedules they say trying to cram everything into their week isn't easy and it means making some sacrifices one of my friends I'm still good friends with her now she dropped swimming when she was in year 10 to focus on her studies cuz it was just too much there was a lot of pressure to do.
Eight sessions or no sessions like it was either competitive or it was nothing I just don't think there's enough hours in the day to practice come to school for 6 hours um rehearse and then do things for yourself as well there is only 24 hours that day isn't there so and there's so many opportunities and things that you can do and things that.
You want to do so to fit it all in yeah you have to cram it otherwise how are you going to do everything Dr Dr is a researcher at the University of South Australia and she looks into how young people use their time and how we can find the best balance in our days recent Studies have found that almost one in two young Australians say that their.
Biggest personal challenge is high work workloads and academic pressure at school while one in four say they really struggle to balance their school life and other commitments like sport music or just hanging out with friends Dr deade says there can be some pretty obvious signs that would trying to fit too much into one day sleep is super.
Important um especially while we're still developing and growing so if your sleep is suffering then you need to think about toning it down a bit with your activities about half of young Aussies say they struggle to get the recommended 8 hours of sleep every night and overloading yourself with.
Extracurricular activities can be cutting into our sleep schedule but Dr deade says even if we do get enough sleep our bodies could still be telling us to chill out another thing is you might just think are you feeling stressed out tired perhaps tired even though you're getting enough sleep perhaps you're not getting.
Time to spend with your family or your friends you might be starting to sleep with your grades at school overthinking just thinking about music thinking about um homework or what you have to do the next day sometimes that will keep me up oh and obviously just sometimes on your phone we're up usually 4:30 6 mornings a week sometimes training doesn't finish.
Till 8:30 sometimes I find it difficult after a gym session I'm all hyped up I've had a good session I don't want to go straight to sleep it is it is difficult recent Studies have suggested that excessive time spent studying or on extracurricular activities can have negative impacts on our mental health they say to think of the benefits.
Like a curve initially extra time spent on studying or sport or playing an instrument is going to be good for us but the more time we spend the more time we cut into things like socializing or downtime or sleep and in the long run this is going to have a negative impact as a regular practice you can't sustain studying for extended periods of time.
And not allowing enough time for sleep for relaxation and for exercise so they're really important components for a healthy balanced lifestyle so how do we find the right balance of everything well Dr deade says it depends for better mental health you might need more hours of sleep for better physical health well.
It probably won't surprise you that you're going to need more exercise but what do we want a mix of everything yes you're looking for the Goldilocks day yeah so the day that's just right we have the right balance of every activity you really can't go wrong if you follow the guidelines then Australia has guidelines for children and young people.
That goes up to the age of 17 those guidelines recommend teens get at least an hour of decent exercise you know work up a sweat as well as a couple hours of light exercise like walking the dog or helping around the house and if you're 14 to 17 get at least 8 to 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep including screens off for an hour before.
Bed Amelia and Michelle have worked out how to manage their time to make sure they get those things and still keep up with school but they also say that even though they spend a lot of time swimming and playing music that's what makes them happiest being able to really time manage um has been a really big part of my life since I was little cuz I started.
Competitive swimming when I was little and it sort of goes back to communicating with your teachers as well find the things that you do daily so for me would be like music um find those things that you love that recharge you and try and fit that inse.
