Consistency, efficiency, de-stress: the keys to balancing work and school

Posted on Wednesday, September 14th, 2016

books460If you find yourself working a part-time job while attending school, you’re not alone. Almost 60 per cent of students reported having a job, while also attending post-secondary education, according to the 2015 Graduating University Student Survey. Working during school can help you gain necessary skills, such as time-management and customer service skills, that will be valuable to you when applying for co-op positions or full-time positions upon graduation.

Here are 5 tips to help you balance work and school:

Don’t run yourself too thin

While balancing both work and school is the norm for most post-secondary students, it is necessary for your well-being not to spread yourself too thin with responsibilities. Try to find out your workload once your semester starts, and plan your other responsibilities accordingly. Putting too much on your plate will be detrimental to both your ability to excel in your studies and to your personal health.

Try to keep a consistent schedule

Keeping a consistent schedule is an important step in balancing both work and school. It allows you to effectively manage your time by planning a time frame for certain things. While it may not be possible to have the exact same schedule every week, depending on where you work, try to schedule the same group of activities during the same time each day, i.e. no homework after a certain hour of the day. Once you get into a consistent routine, you also won’t waste more precious time or brainpower on figuring out how to spend your time next, ultimately freeing up more productive time.

Use a calendar app

Since the majority of people are on their phones most of the day it only makes sense to have your day planner or calendar on it as well. There are a number of different calendar apps available, but the stock iCal or Google Calendar app work quite well too. This way, you can input your school and work schedules, and easily see when you have extra time to study or work on assignments, or when you will be able to plan leisure activities. They also enable you to set up reminders or notifications so you will never forget an important deadline or assignment, regardless of it is for something big like and exam, or something small, like remembering to pick up groceries.

Work efficiently

You will make your life significantly easier and less stressful if you are able to make the most out of the time that you have dedicated to doing work. Working efficiently doesn’t necessarily mean working harder, it means utilizing your time effectively to get the most amount of work done possible. This means that during your dedicated working time, you are not doing other, unnecessary activities that will waste your time; surfing the web, checking social media, talking on the phone, etc. An easy way to do this is to free yourself from distractions; put your phone on silent, study in a room with no tv, ask your parents not to disturb you for the next little while.

This will allow you to use the time you set aside for leisure to do whatever you’d like to do, instead of using it to catch up on work you should have finished already.

Set time aside time to de-stress

An important part of balancing a heavy workload is also to schedule in time to do things that will allow you to step away from work and relax or de-stress. This will help you avoid burning out at work. Some things you can do to de-stress during are:

For more professional tips & tricks, be sure to check back on our blog at https://www.algonquincollege.com/coop/category/blog/

For more information about co-op at Algonquin College, please visit our website at https://www.algonquincollege.com/coop/, connect with us at coop@algonquincollege.com or call us at 613-727-4723 Ext.7623


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