How To Manage Your Time as a Dancer

Many of our students spend a huge portion of their week in dance class doing what they love, but this can occasionally cause stress in other areas of life. Sometimes the demands of school, other activities and everyday life can be time consuming. As a dancer, it can be difficult to balance school work on top of your dancing hours but it is far from impossible! This blog will give you a few tips on how to balance dance with other aspects of your life!

One of the best ways to use your time efficiently is by getting multiple things off your to-do list done at once! This is called multitasking, and for some, it’s the best way to free up hours in the week. Everybody is different, and some people require full attention on a given task to get it done correctly. Luckily if you’re a dancer, chances are you’re used to thinking about a billion things at once! A great example of multitasking could be as simple as stretching while doing your homework. Set up your workspace on the floor and stretch out while you work! Just be mindful that you’re stretching safely ( see blog on safe dance) and that you aren’t holding single stretches for extended periods of time.

Get a calendar and a diary and use them regularly! Most of the time people who are struggling to manage their time aren’t short on time itself, but simply don’t know what is due or what they need to get done! 

A calendar will allow you to see all of your long term responsibilities and commitments. This allows you to decide what you need to work on first. Save your calendar for due dates of assignments, exams, dance competition days and important events so it doesn’t get crowded with daily to-do’s.

A diary will help with day to day tasks. This ensures you don’t forget things like homework or to bring your ballet leotard to dance. Ensuring that you get these little everyday tasks organised will minimise your stres, allowing you to focus on your bigger goals and tasks.

Another great way to get organised is to keep your space tidy. This can include your bedroom, your dance bag and your school bag! Keeping things tidy will help you manage your time more effectively by ensuring that you aren’t wasting time on searching for lost items or digging around your room for your dance costume last minute!

Get important tasks done first! Dancers, tend to want to spend every second of free time dancing and doing what they love, but sometimes you have to put other things first. If you have an assignment due but also need to stretch, think about which is more important in the moment. Getting your school assignment out of the way will actually give you more time to dance in the long run, as you won’t be stressing about school work once it’s done!

We hope these tips help you manage your time a little more efficiently! For more info check out our blog post on ‘Dancing in Year 11 and 12’. Let us know in the comments if you have any other methods of managing your time.