Many students find themselves in situations with multiple overdue assignments, being physically and mentally exhausted from school the week (especially so if you’re balancing a job as well), and stressing about a upcoming test that will determine your grade in a class.
So, the question is, regarding scenarios like this is the student being lazy or are they just burnt out? While it always depends on the individual, the majority of the time it comes down to mix of the two, with students being burnt out from excessive schoolwork, but also not doing everything in their power to fix their situation.
This may not be the case for all students, but unfortunately, this is the case for many students with either a part-time job and/or extracurriculars to go to after school. In some cases, the student doesn’t even have a job or extracurriculars to attend at all but still can’t manage to do their work.
When trying to balance your academics, extracurriculars, job, and personal responsibilities, things can become really stressful and exhausting, even for those will less responsibilities like unemployed students.
As a high school student, burnout has become easier to attain. With all of the required state and graduation testing back-to-back, SAT/ACT testing, assignment build-up, program course requirements and the nerve-wracking preparation juniors and seniors have to endorse just to get into a college of their interest.
It is as if when you complete one task, there is already another task waiting for you. Even when the scheduled breaks come, they quickly go by far quicker than the school weeks and are over before you know it.
But what are the real effects of being a burnt-out high school student? To start, your mental health will slowly begin to drift. Anxiety and chronic stress from the overwhelming number of tasks they have to complete within a deadline is a common factor for these effects.
Physical health is also affected. This is especially impactful for students who do not have a strict and healthy sleeping schedule.
Being physically burnt out can lead to sleep deprivation, headaches, physical exhaustion, and dizziness.
Not to mention, being burned out as a high school student can lead to procrastination, which follows the lack of focus on your academic lectures, and then progressively your grades decline.
As a high school student, this is less then desirable for all of us. For students looking to minimize these acts of procrastination, I would suggest figuring out what works to help you get into that workflow state and finish those assignment and to do tasks that are stressing you out. I personally use a digital planner and/or calendar for reminders and keeping track of assignments to finish them.