This post is part of a series focusing on Time Management for Teens, Students, and High Schoolers. Get the complete online course here or order the book here!
Get Better Grades In High School And More Out Of Life By Putting Your Vacations To Better Use
You want to get more out of your high school holidays, breaks and vacations, right?
Good thinking.
Time management is about effective use of your limited time, leading to more personal fulfillment.
Holidays in high school test this to the max, because the general mood is “don’t do anything, take it easy!”
But, it’s a paradox because high school holidays are rare opportunities for students to have the free time to relax and get ahead.
Read on to learn more…
Accomplish Your Dreams During High School Holidays, Don’t Act Like A Sloth!
In fact, adults experience this disappointing laziness as well.
It’s one of the reasons that surprisingly, a lot of adults have a negative feeling towards holidays!
My theory is this. A lot of people just act like SLOTHS during their holidays and actually get farther from their hopes and dreams.
This causes them to feel frustrated, guilty, or to feel something “off” that they can’t pinpoint.
Holidays give a lot of sudden FREE TIME - which can lead to unexpected results that aren’t all fun and games.
You need to plan way in advance how you will use your high school holidays to both recharge your batteries and get important work done for high school.
Let’s cover some key goals…
The Key Goals Of High School Vacations and Breaks
Let’s hit the highlights of breaks and holidays in high school - particularly during Junior and Senior year of high school.
Here are some of the key tasks that work well for your breaks and holidays - don’t forget to take notes!
- College research and college visits.
- College applications and college essays.
- Scholarship research, apps, and essays.
- SAT and ACT test prep and practice testing.
- Preparing for big tests, finals, and other major school projects.
- Conquering long reading assignments for school.
- Personal free reading time.
- Taking online courses to prep for specific classes.
- Building your vocabulary.
- Making flashcards.
- Additional tutoring in your weak subjects.
- Working on fine arts projects.
- Getting a bunch of exercise and outdoor time.
- Catching up on sleep.
- Working on personal goals and projects.
- Unwinding and catching a quick break.
- Seeing or doing something new to refresh your energy in life.
Let’s cover each of the major yearly high school holidays and explore some smart ways you can use them.
Read on to plan better vacations in high school!
How To Get The Most Out Of Your Summer Vacation In High School
Summer break is the most famous of all high school breaks. It’s nearly 3 months of seemingly wide-open time to sit around doing nothing!
The only thing is… it never turns out that way. And that’s a good thing.
If you sit around all summer, you’ll get bored to TEARS in just a few weeks.
Actually, many high schoolers find their summers just as crazy-busy as their school year.
With off-season sports, summer camps, family vacations, time with friends, and summer reading assignments it can seem like there’s no free time at all during summer!
My advice for summer is this: make the most of every summer. Keep trying new things.
For example, try getting a job one summer, then go to fun summer camp another year.
Next up, how you can get into better colleges with your vacations…
How To Get Into Better Colleges With Your Summer Vacation In High School
Always use summer to do the following:
- Prepare your schoolwork.
- Enhance your college resume.
- Get higher SAT and ACT test scores.
- Develop your college and scholarship applications.
Keep making progress towards the goal of finding and getting accepted to a great college.
However, Summer is NOT the ideal time for campus visits (since colleges aren’t in session).
Instead, work on your college resume, activities, leadership positions, and SAT & ACT test scores.
Your summer resume actually matters a lot to your college acceptance odds.
Seniors and Juniors must make strategic decisions with their summer activities and goals.
How To Have More Fun Over Summer Break AND Get Into Better Colleges
What will help you get into college? Doing lots of different stuff each summer.
This also helps prevent “the summer effect” of getting super-rusty in school and bored with life.
The weird thing about being lazy over summer is that it’s not even fun!
If you’re sitting around getting bored and rusty this summer, try signing up for another of my online courses. A long summer vacation is one the best times to study on the side.
Active and productive summers will always be more fun and rewarding than lazy, passive summers.
So, plan in advance what you’ll do with your summer vacation this year!
Coming up next are the secrets of Spring Break…
How To Use Spring Break To Lower Your Stress In High School
Spring Break is the next-most popular break from high school.
Spring Break offers 1-2 weeks of vacation time when you need it most - right near the end of the school year.
If you need to use this time for a real vacation, I wouldn’t blame you.
My dad and I liked to go snow-skiing on Spring Break whenever possible!
But, if you’ll be staying at home, you can make excellent use of Spring Break. Spend it on college research and SAT and ACT test prep.
Also, the end of the school year (especially Junior year) is filled with big tests and projects.
You should use at least 50% of your Junior year spring break for schoolwork. You’ll need it just to stay on top of your end-of-year projects.
Seniors, Sophomores and Freshman have a bit less stress during Spring Break. They can put the time into free reading and vocabulary! Or, work on your personal projects and life goals.
Make Sure To Come Back Well-Rested From Spring Break
Spring Break is just long enough to get your sleep schedule completely screwed-up, if you stay up late every night.
One of the biggest risks of Spring Break is coming back even more tired than when you left!
Budget your energy and get good nights of sleep.
This is especially true in the days right before Spring Break ends.
Do you know how to use Winter Break to the max? Read on to learn more…
How To Get Ahead Of The Competition With Winter Break
Winter Break is actually a much longer holiday than Spring Break…
Although, for some reason Spring Break always gets more attention. Maybe because Spring Break is sunnier or maybe because it’s closer to the end of the school year!
In any case, Juniors must make good use of their Winter Break to get ahead.
That means SAT and ACT prep, as well as a diligent focus on school projects and assignments.
It’s tempting to relax over Winter Break as a Junior. But Junior year is supposed to be extra-hard. You’re showing off the best of your capabilities in preparation for college applications.
Try to push yourself to 80% productivity levels. You won’t be too stressed over Winter Break, but you will get a huge amount of important work completed…
Because without school and sports to interfere with your schedule, Juniors should have plenty of time to get ahead during Winter Break.
Seniors should use Winter Break to decide which college they’ll choose - if they are accepted to more than one school!
Sophomores and Freshman should be reading and vocab-building over Winter break. It’s hard to find enough spare time when school is in session.
Also, make sure to have plenty of fun during Winter Break! Schedule some downtime with friends and family. Enjoy the excitement of giving and receiving in the Winter holidays!
Finally, please make sure not to get completely loopy with your sleep schedule over Winter Break.
It’s very easy to loose sleep in Winter with short days and long nights… and all the new toys, electronics, or video games you may have gotten as presents.
Getting excited for vacation? Here come some more…
How To Have Fun, Catch Up, And Eat Good Food On Thanksgiving Break in High School
Compared to Winter holidays, Thanksgiving Break doesn’t offer much time to work with.
It’s one of those shorter holidays - mostly just for food, fun and family.
Use Thanksgiving Break in high school to catch up on small assignments.
Also, confirm your Winter Break plans - it’s coming up soon!
There’s not enough time to do much else. Have fun hanging out with family and eating tons of food!
Speaking of short breaks…
How To Make The Most Of Long Weekends In High School
Don’t forget one of the best parts of high school - LONG WEEKENDS.
The random long weekends here and there during the school year are like multipurpose mini-vacations. They can be used for whatever you need.
It’s tempting to use long weekends for purely social things like hanging out with friends.
But, long weekends are also useful for college visits. College classes are still in session, so you can get a better sense of what each school is like.
High School Seniors should be using every long weekend for something productive (at least until their college applications are sent in).
Use Long Weekends For Better SAT and ACT Test Scores
Juniors - the busiest students in high school – must use long weekends for SAT and ACT test prep.
You don’t have to give up the whole weekend in service to test prep… but a 3-day weekend is one of the best times to take a practice SAT or ACT test. Use the time to go over your mistakes.
Nw’s also a great time to check out my other online courses and books for high schoolers.
These will give you great ideas for how to study over a long weekend in high school!
But, have you made sure to plan your breaks? Here are some further tips…
Plan Your High School Vacations and Breaks For Less Stress, More Fun, And More Productivity
As always, pre-planning and using calendars and journals will enhance your productivity during vacations.
Write down a daily to-do list. Do your end-of-day productivity journaling.
But holidays also deserve some special pre-planning because of how important they are.
Use each holiday to plan 1 or 2 holidays ahead. Then, use Summer to plan as much as possible for the entire coming school year.
For example, use the end of Winter Break to plan and outline your SPRING Break.
Use a little time from Spring Break to plan your SUMMER Break.
Use your SUMMER Break to outline your coming year of vacation and holiday plans.
Make sure to document your plans on calendars, computers, or journals (or you can use all three methods!)
Then, put this written-down info somewhere that you will see it often. It will help remind you of the overall scope of your year.
And, never forget the most important thing about vacations…
Chase Your Dreams During High School Vacations, Breaks, and Holidays
Always strive to use your vacations to chase your dreams!
Planning your high school vacations can take some effort, but here’s the good news:
When you’re working during the holidays, you get “bonus points” for productivity.
Just like the weekends, few people can chase their dreams on break. That’s because everyone ELSE is being lazy, sleeping in, and accomplishing nothing.
So, once you’ve accomplished a few major goals for the day, celebrate!
Don’t spend all your free time on a high school break being productive… unless that’s what you truly want to do!
Sometimes I’m really focused on my work, music, or other goals. Sometimes I actually want to use my whole holiday to work… but maybe that’s just me.
(Or maybe that’s the power of focus and discovering your passions!)
In any event, make sure to spend time with family and friends. That’s what the holidays were invented for, and we can always spend more time with our loved ones.
The big holidays are one of the only times when everyone has free time. You really want to spend some of that time with the people you care about… even if you’re a total workaholic.
Don’t stop here. Let’s review what we’ve learned about high school vacations…
A Quick Review Of How To Use High School Vacations and Breaks
So in conclusion, high school vacations and holidays are about balance and the top 3 rules of time management.
You must balance the need to recharge with the urge to get something productive done.
Use your time to get ahead and not to fall behind the curve.
Sometimes, it’s just about enjoying the atmosphere, treats, gifts, and travel that we associate with the holidays.
Other times, it’s about motivating yourself to keep moving towards your life goals… instead of just drifting lazily like a spineless jellyfish all break long.
Many people feel too lazy during the holidays. They suddenly stop doing anything. Then they end up regretting it when the holiday is over.
Turns out being lazy all break long is NOT actually all that fun!
Instead, find ways to get a jump on your work… and hang out with your family and friends over the holidays.
Get a jump on your big projects. You’ll have more control over your big-picture calendar. And this will snowball into lower stress overall in your life.
Last but not least, make sure you take some time to reward yourself for your efforts. Find time to enjoy the vacation for what it is - a chance to get away from high school for a while!
I have one final question for you today… read on!
Tell Me About Your Favorite High School Vacation!
Now I have a question for you: What’s the most fun high school break you’ve ever had?
Where did you go? Who did you go with? What did you do?
Do you have a favorite memory or moment from the trip?
It always makes me happy to remember my best vacations with friends and family.
Take a moment to pause and share your own experience in the comments, and I’ll see you in the next lesson!
Make this year your most productive year ever! Get the complete Time Management for Teens Online Course or order the book on Amazon today.