According to the best coaches in the game, the number one challenge in your freshman year is understanding system skills.

Even when we included softball, academic, and leadership skills among the options, the best coaches in the game said that the number one challenge in your freshman year is understanding system skills. These are skills like time management, planning your work schedule, organizing your day, etc. OSB has great news for you – these are learned skills that you can easily improve!

You might be surprised to know that our Think Tank coaches agree that the least challenging aspect of freshman year has to do with a player’s softball skills. Most who get to that level have put in a lot of hours to get their skills to a competitive level. Keep up the great work on your softball skills!

Here are some ways to improve your personal time management skills:

• Make a promise to yourself to plan your own day/week/month, rather than relying on your parents or others to tell you what to do and where to be.
• Start by creating an organized system – pick up a standard day planner, or type your schedule into your phone calendar. Every time you have an appointment, team practice, individual lesson, test or paper due, enter it into your organization system.
• Every night before bed, take a quick look at the next day’s schedule to ensure that you’re prepared for your day. For example, if you have a lesson, make sure you have transportation arranged.
• Once a week–Sunday evening is a great time–take a look at your upcoming week as a whole. Communicate to your parents any help you’ll need for that week.

Creating these types of systems will allow you to budget your time, ensuring you won’t have to rush at the last minute. Did you notice on Sunday that you have a long team practice Thursday night and a big test on Friday? Now you can plan ahead and study Wednesday night, rather than having to cram late Thursday night. Here come the better grades! Which of course will open more doors to college.

You can create this type of system in all areas of your life. We recommend you take a step back from “doing” your life, and budget some time (10-20 minutes can make a big difference) to plan how you will make each area of your life more organized and systematic. Feel free to ask for help from parents or coaches as you try this for the first time.

Good luck and happy planning! Get 1% better this week!

About The Author

ONE Softball Staff

The ONE Softball editorial staff has decades of success in coaching and business. Coming from diverse backgrounds and experiences, the founders share one common goal: to help the softball community come together. We are excited to provide crucial resources for players, parents and coaches to succeed at every level.

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