How can busy teens make time to volunteer? 

Your teenage years usually coincide with higher academic workload and reaching a level of excellence in extracurricular activities. At the same time, we know that teens benefit from caring for others, volunteering and building gratitude. See my article about this here. So, how can a busy teenager make time for volunteering? Here are some ideas that have helped me:

1. Find ways to volunteer close to where you live or from home. This saves a significant amount of time in commute and can also give you more control with scheduling volunteer time, since you don’t need to get a ride to the volunteer site
2. Set up fixed times during the week to volunteer. Work with the non-profit to set up fixed slots ahead of time, so you can plan your academics and extracurriculars along with volunteering, into the schedule. Stick with pre-set times as closely as possible. Sometimes, someone you need to work with will be delayed during your designated volunteer slot. This results in lost time. Try to guard your time as much as possible, without losing the human element of staying true to helping individuals.
3. Use general time management techniques. For eg. if you were to cut down your time on the phone by half, could you spend that time volunteering?
4. If you can weave in volunteering into your school time (eg. during club hours or zero period), that will just fit right into your schedule without you having to maintain another calendar
5. Keep it simple: Volunteering in your neighborhood to clean the retention pond, picking up waste, donating old clothes, helping a sick neighbor are all great ways to volunteer. It does not need to involve working with a large non-profit organization
6. There are different ways to distribute volunteering time. For eg. you could do 3 weeks of volunteering during Christmas break or you could volunteer few hours every week. The choice is your’s and the benefits still work either way.
7. Another really great way to fit in volunteering into your schedule, is to convert your time with family or friends into volunteering time. If you volunteer with your family or friends, you would not only be spending time with them, but you will also have helped others in need. Great way to do both at the same time!