Balancing work and school poses many challenges. These problems may sometimes overwhelm a person, especially if he has dwindling time and resources. Fortunately, many individuals have successfully juggled school and work with flying colors. Although it can be far too difficult, it’s still possible.
Suppose you’re planning to enroll in a school while working. In that case, you may need to think of strategies to maximize your productivity. For that purpose, here’s an article to guide you in identifying things that could help you have a proper work-life balance.
Keep Your Mind And Body Active And Healthy
Working and going to school simultaneously may drain you physically and emotionally. You must prepare your mind and body to prevent it from happening. The following are some points you may need to try before starting a tight work-life schedule:
Eat Nutritious Food
Take fat- and protein-rich meals as they provide the sustained energy you need at work and in school. This will help you become focused and energized every day. Eggs, carrots, and peanut butter are some of these. In addition, you need to take at least eight glasses of water daily to improve digestion.
You may also need to take multivitamins to keep you awake, albeit healthily. Folate and vitamin B-12 are two of the vitamins that could get you going on your busy days. You may also try nootropics to enhance your memory, boost your energy, and improve your alertness. These helpful benefits are essential in doing your tasks at home and work.
Rest If Necessary
While you may find it hard to complete an 8-hour sleep, keeping your mind and body healthy is still vital. Because of this, you may need to ensure to accomplish your assignments before their deadlines. Note that the earlier you finish your tasks, the earlier you can rest.
Should you find it hard to sleep properly, consider taking naps during breaks. Here are some types of naps you may try:
Power Nap
This usually lasts for 15-20 minutes. It’s believed to boost energy and recharge the brain. It’s also ideal for people who need to enhance their memory and do multiple tasks.
Snooze Session
This usually ranges from 30 to 40 minutes and is typically taken by people who failed to meet their standard 8-hour sleep. Snooze sessions usually recompense the lost resting time, thus supercharging the body and brain.
Full-On Nap
This generally lasts up to 90 minutes and is ideal for people who need to take a rest to counter drowsiness and fatigue. Expectedly, people who have taken full-on naps are more active and energized after waking. Yet, don’t take this one if you’re planning to sleep hours or minutes later, as you may find it difficult to do so.
Exercise Regularly
Aside from your regular exercises, you may try other forms to enhance your alertness and wakefulness. Some of these are aerobic exercises, such as cycling and jogging. If you’re in the middle of studying and start to feel drowsy, you may try jumping jacks for 10-15 minutes. You may also walk up and down the stairs for 10 minutes as an alternative.
Manage Your Time Properly
Time management is vital as it maximizes one’s available time and improves the quality of work. In work-life balance, managing your time may start with creating a priority list that could help you identify and finish the more urgent tasks than the less important ones. This way, you can also give ample time to the tasks requiring more effort and time.
Aside from priority listing, you may also employ some productivity techniques, such as the following:
Pomodoro
This approach uses a timer to group a day into 25-minute periods, with each period having a 5-minute break between them. Longer intervals may be consumed after a cycle of three to five working periods.
Eat The Frog
This technique is basically about accomplishing the most challenging task of the day. Getting it done can pave the way for many simple tasks. Generally, this also arranges tasks according to their difficulty.
Kanban
This method allows you to divide your tasks into three categories—To Do, In Progress, and Done. The To-Do category refers to the tasks you have yet to complete, In-Progress tasks refer to the ongoing works, and Done refers to the accomplished ones.
Celebrate Small Victories
Going to school while working can be dragging, and one needs positive feedback to keep one going. Meanwhile, if burnout happens early on, one may fall into a rut, and progress may be difficult to achieve. Seeing things in a positive light can avoid this.
If you’re the one who’s in this situation, you need to appreciate every single step you take, be it an accomplished task at work or submitted schoolwork. Besides, you may need to ease yourself from tension and reward yourself every time you celebrate by treating yourself to your favorite coffee or ice cream.
Track Your Progress
Track your progress by keeping a record of your accomplished tasks, monitoring your course syllabus, and identifying your goals. Visualizing things helps you plan and see the possible bottlenecks you may encounter shortly. With this, you can adjust your approaches in school and work to overcome the hurdles.
If you choose to pause, progress tracking can assist you in identifying where to start again should you go back to work and take classes again. Hence, you can never lose track of the things you achieved and the goals you’d want to accomplish.
Seek Family And Peer Support
Solid family and peer support can help you push through the hardships of your simultaneous work and schooling. In most cases, friends and family give that extra push whenever you lack the courage and confidence to continue. Moreover, they can help you improve your work-life balance and relax your schedule to prevent weariness and similar issues.
Wrapping Up
Juggling school and work can never be an easy task. Fortunately, there are things one can do to overcome the hardships in this predicament. With a strong commitment, focus, and this article, one can finish studies while doing well against the rigors of work, school, and life.
