One crucial asset to properly adjusting to a college lifestyle is time-management skills. Although rather difficult to grasp sometimes, once you have mastered it, life becomes a whole lot easier. My time-management skills really improved these last few semesters of college, when I not only had to balance a school-life schedule, but also a school-life-work schedule.
It can be extremely intimidating at first, as you typically feel as though you need to plan for every single hour of every single day. I’m not going to lie, it can be a challenge, especially when it comes to making plans with friends and family not only around when you have class, but also around when you have to work. There are definitely ways to overcome this intimidation!
One technique that really helped me better manage my time was to constantly flip-flop my priorities. If I had a huge exam coming up the following week, I’d allocate most of my time to studying, factoring in my shifts for that week, and put off hanging out with my friends or family until after the big test. If I had a week where my workload was light, I’d allocate most of my time out of work to hanging with those I wished to see and doing light schoolwork here or there whenever I found I had extra time. Not having the same set order of priorities every week really helped me set my focus to what needed to have my attention every week.
Another technique that helped me a lot was to keep a to-do list with me every single day, for all three aspects of my life. My to-do list would include classes I had to go to for that day, the classwork due that day, the times for my tutoring appointments, and any other personal meet-ups or errands I had to do for that day. This to-do list helped me to prioritize even further what I had to get done and also helped me have a visual for what I had and when it was happening. If I saw I had a tutoring appointment for 12:00, I could try to plan what things I could get done before the session and what I could probably put off until after. Overall, making lists and constantly updating them really helped me out.
My biggest piece of advice in maintaining a work-school-life balance would be: DON’T BE SO HARD ON YOURSELF!
There will be times when you are completely overwhelmed. There will also be times where you will bash yourself for not getting something accomplished. Always remember that you are doing the best you can, and if you need to take a break, whether that be from classes, work, or even going out in a social setting, that is perfectly fine. Sometimes you simply need time for, well, you! Remember, you want to maintain a balance; if you start to feel overwhelmed, your balance might simply be thrown off. When this happens, take a break and take some time to reflect on what you think you might be able to change. If that helps, you should be able to accomplish whatever you set your mind on!