Khmer Youth Association

School holidays are here! What a joy! Finally, after all those months of hard study you have some free time. While many of you will spend it at home and rest, for others these holidays are an opportunity to improve your language or computer skills, get a seasonal job, assist in the family business or help with farming work in the countryside. This time can also be used to try out new activities. How about learning to play guitar or getting involved in community work?

In my experience, it seems that the more time you have the more difficult it is to manage it. And this is usually the case with summer holidays: too much free time on your hands. So no matter how you decide to spend these holidays, you might want some tips on how to better organize your time and achieve the goals you set for yourself in this period. So here are some tips to help you make the most of your holidays before they are over. And, as a bonus, you might also find that these tips can be useful for other times in your life.

1.Let’s start from the beginning: what do you want and need to do?

Make a list. Go and take a piece of paper, pen and make a list of all the activities you need or want to do during this holiday period, no matter how important or insignificant they may seem. It could be learning to sing, exercising or helping with the family business. Maybe you have always wanted to start a youth club, organize a community activity, get a job or read a book.

2.Prioritize your activities

This means organizing your list in a specific order according to specific criteria. It could be importance, urgency, difficulty level, time availability, or just your personal preference.

For example, Sophany, Kimthea and Leyley have the same activities they want to accomplish during the school holidays: read a book, exercise and join a youth club. However, their priorities are different and Somphany prioritized her list by importance, Kimthea by time availability and Leyley by preference. Take a look at their lists:

Sophany (Importance)	Kimthea (time availability)	Leyley (preference)
Join a youth club Exercise Read a book	Exercise Read a book Join a youth club	Read a book Join a youth club Exercise

Whatever type of priority you choose, it has to work for you and be in line with your circumstances. In our example Leyley loves literature and therefore the first activity on her list is reading a book; Kimthea also loves reading, but right now he only has time for exercising, so this activity tops his list. Finally, Sophany knows that joining a youth club will give her an opportunity to network and develop work-related skills so nothing is more important to her that joining the local youth club.

3.Break activities into smaller steps and allocate necessary resources

Thinking realistically, most probably you won’t be able to read a whole book in a day or accomplish much if you exercise just for a couple of hours during all the holidays. Joining a youth club also demands serious commitment of time and effort. So to help you accomplish more and manage your time better, think of each activity and its implications. Let’s say you want to read a Harry Potter book. What will you need? You will need the book and a quiet place where you can comfortably read. Try to think of the time you need. My suggestion is to allocate at least two fixed hours to it. When will you do this? It can be early in the morning or late at night, or any other time when you know nobody will disturb you.

If you want to exercise, ask yourself what is the goal that you want to achieve? Do you want to gain or lose weight? Improve your cardio capacity or become stronger? Maybe, you just want to have fun with your friends? Where will you exercise? When? How often? How long will it take to achieve your goal? Whatever the answers to these questions may be, commit to your plan and just do it. No complaints, no excuses.

4.Monitor your progress

Go through your list and check the progress you made after a while. Did you finish the book earlier or later than you expected? Is the exercise overwhelming you or do you know you can push yourself a little bit more? Since the experience is so rewarding, can you commit more time to the youth club? It is possible for something unexpected to occur and affect your whole plan. If so, check it and adjust it. Good time management skills are also about the ability to adapt to new circumstances. Try to follow your plan as much as you can, but it shouldn’t become so restrictive that you don’t enjoy doing the activities anymore. If your plan isn’t working- make appropriate adjustments and keep on going.

And some final advice:

You don’t need to fill every second of your day with planned activities. The examples above are to show you how you can plan the things you want to accomplish during your holidays. We tend to fill our days with lessons, work, house chores or family events. So allow yourself time to rest, catch up with friends, see the sunset or just sleep.
And one very important thing: learn to say “no”. We all have moments when we feel compelled to accept everything we are asked to do because we don’t want to let people down. But, actually, if your schedule becomes too full and you don’t have time to fulfill all your promises – that is when you are more likely to let people down. So, if you see you are too busy or will not be able to complete the request just say “no”. This way you won’t need to be in a rush, nobody will end up disappointed when you fail to fulfill your promise and the quality of whatever you do will be much better. Try to offer an alternative instead. People will understand.

Enjoy your school holiday to the fullest and complete as many things as you want during this time!

By Tamara Andrea Pena-Porras

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