The American public education system is known around the world for its early start times, with most schools in the state of Florida starting at 7:30 in the morning and ending at 2:30 in the afternoon. Many groups across the country have been calling for schools to start later in the day, mostly around 8 or 9 in the morning, in exchange for schools ending later in the day. While most students agree with this proposal, some students believe that school should start at the same time, because they don’t want to leave school later than usual. Personally, I’m for whichever proposal wins, because I struggle to arrive on time to school, especially during last year, when I was often late to my first class of the day. This short opinion piece will cover my struggles with being late to class, and how you could fix or improve your time management.

Now, why would I, the ever infallible Shane Miller, arrive late to class? Well, as I may not have led you to believe, I’m not a very timely person. I often struggle with insomnia during the night and an addiction to my phone, even if I’m trying to use my phone to help me fall asleep. Oftentimes, I’ll find myself waking up slightly later than usual, and will then accidentally fall back asleep and wake up several minutes late to class. On rare occasions, I may entirely miss a class, such as what happened several times last year to my second period AP:USH course. This year, I still struggle with arriving on time, however I have noticed a significant improvement in my time management skills, maybe due to me becoming more mature over the course of this summer. 

Now, if you suffer from the same issues as I, how would I recommend you improve? Well, the most obvious advice I could give you is to TURN YOUR PHONE OFF AT NIGHT!!!! And yes, I mean OFF-entirely removed from anywhere you can reach. Addiction to mobile devices is often so great that you’ll force yourself to grab your phone and look at it during the night, even if you’re close to falling asleep. Now, a less obvious solution is to not eat a snack right before you go to bed. If you really need to eat something, do it at least an hour before you’re trying to hit the hay-trust me, it does wonders. A final piece of advice I could give you would be to invest in something that makes a little ambient noise during the night, like a small fan. This method may not work for everyone, but I’m a heavy sleeper, so something making noise in the background and cooling me at the same time, removing any outside distractions from my brain, is an instant help in my book.