balancing work and studies

Working and studying:  Can I cope with the pressure?

"If only I had enough time to study…" Is this something that you have been thinking about? You may be feeling stressed about how to keep a balance between your work, professional life, family and personal commitments. Would you like a sense of direction in your life? And what about the energy you need to keep on studying despite your responsibilities?

Strategies to alleviate this pressure:

Decide what is important to you 

The way you spend your time determines how you spend the rest of your life. Ultimately it also determines who you are and what you’ve accomplished during your life. Unlike other commodities, time can never return or be recreated. Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. This demands a sense of urgency, especially when it comes to your studies. Many areas in your life will become negotiable when you consider your studies as a high priority.

Reduce pressure in your life

One of the biggest challenges in a working student’s life is how to distinguish between important tasks and unnecessary tasks.  Learn to give a stern “no” to unnecessary pressure people or circumstances place on you. Unused time is often controlled by dominant people in your world. They like to make plans for your time. Take the initiative to command your time before others do.

Build meaningful relationships

Take into mind that all those tasks at work are not as meaningful as deep, warm relationships with our partners, friends or colleagues. Yes, work is very important, but the key is to find a balance between your studies, work and relationships. By using time to build healthy relationships, important people in your life will most likely boost you when you feel discouraged about your studies. They will give you the support you need on this long haul of distance learning.

Plan your time

Here is an exercise to help you think about how you go about finding time to study.

1. I make precise plans, for example: I study between 20:00 and 21:30 on weekdays.
2. I just can’t work during the week, as I have no time. I can study quite a bit over weekends though.
3. When I have a lot to do, I set my alarm on hour earlier, and put in an hour before the day starts.
   After thinking about this exercise, you will notice that different people making different plans when it comes to finding time to study. You do, however, need to make sure that you do the required amount of work.

Are there tools to help me cope?

As you know, life can be very unstructured at times. When studying comes into your life, it usually means that other less important things have to go. This is one of the first problems you need to face - the juggling act of keeping the extra ball in the air. Effective studying requires a lot of time in good sized chunks. So you need to become an expert at creating time. This may be the most important principle, because you need to budget for your time far in advance. Make sure you have a good calendar (you received one from the Bureau for Counselling, Career and Academic Development at the beginning of the year). Enter those non-negotiable aspects of your private life like your study goals (for example, “When should I start planning for my next assignment?”), commitments to family and friends, work commitments and spiritual commitments on your calendar now.

Define tasks

Determine how much time you will need to study for each module or subject. Get an overall idea of what you are hoping to accomplish and then break it into smaller chunks, such as what you would like to accomplish in a week. Decide how much time to allocate to each task so that you can manage yourself keep yourself going until you have truly reached your study goals. Manage your time by setting priorities and then organising yourself and your time around them. Break these down into long-term and short-term goals and plans. Turn these plans into schedules or time slots. Decide firmly to act as planned. When you have set yourself a defined task, it is easier to focus your attention on it.

I find it difficult to stick to my plan

Don’t be alarmed if you find it difficult to stick to your plan. It is one thing to make a plan, but another entirely to stick to it. You might find that you will have to change your plans, but making a plan is still worth making the effort, because any decisions you make in changing your plans force you to think about what you are doing and where you are heading.

Planning makes you think strategically. Also use some time to reflect on whether you can make some changes to get better results. Don’t just walk on vaguely hoping for the best. Manage yourself and take responsibility for your time. By making time to reflect on your time management, you are in the process to regain a sense of personal security regarding your studies.

What if other things come my way?

Determine the importance of the task. If you want to commit to it, make sure that it flows around the priorities into available time slots.

Conclusion

We started this article with “If only I had time…” It turns out that time is not the problem it sometimes appears to be – it is the way you approach using the time available to you that matters. It may be suitable for you, at this point, to write down one or two plans about how you can maximise your time. And if you dare, stick them up where other people can see them – this will certainly help you stick to them!

If you seize time and keep it under control, it is the start of an organised day, an organised private life and an organised world.

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