Multitasking In High School Analysis

I awake before the sun. When I rise, I am greeted by the comforting darkness of the night, lulling me back to sleep. I engage in the daily brawl against my bed, struggling to get up. After a rough victory, I get out and start my day. I reach school by 8:00, where I spend the next 7 hours listening to the droning of teachers, laboring over assignments, and killing trees by taking pages of notes. Now, this scenario is not uncommon among most students. The average profile of several students shows that they take 6 AP’s, are part of 10 different clubs, and do 3 sports. To any normal person, it is obvious that this rigorous schedule would teach responsibility and time-management. I, however, learned something else: multitasking is not as useful
as focusing on one thing. Doing five different tasks at the same time fails to achieve the same effect as completing one assignment flawlessly. In high school, I stereotyped myself as the typical ‘try-hard’ student. I joined all the clubs and took the most challenging courses, even though some did not appeal to me. This overload of classes led to high amounts of stress and pressure, causing me to do poorly in school.
Once I realized my error, I switched up my style. I took classes that would benefit me the most in college, and continued in clubs that gnawed at my curiosity. There was an instant change in my schedule and course load. Suddenly, I had a whole entire hour of free time, which I thoroughly used to pursue my hobbies. I also had more sleep, which improved my physical and mental welfare. My extra time was spent engrossing myself in classes and clubs, succeeding and attaining high ranking positions in both.
At the University of California, I hope to continue to push myself past the limits as I focus on the things most important to me. The trial of complexity has been my greatest adversary. Once I learned to focus like a laser on the essentials, I overcame my ordeal.