The average American has a million things on their plate. Many of them are full time student, parents and hold a job. From personal experience I can tell you that balancing school, a job and my personal life is no walk in the park. With all the things that are going on in your life, being organized, making a flexible schedule and communicating with your boss, teachers and family members, help you balance all three and still have time for yourself.
The first step in balancing school, work and a busy life is making a schedule.
When deciding to juggle a busy life you have to be prepared to have school assignments, run errands, and to be called off schedule at work. First creating a plan that can be used all times will help you keep these things in place. Second in the beginning of the week set a timetable for work, studying and family time. By doing this you will have a clear mind set of how your time should be spent.
You’re not going to successfully juggle work with your other priorities unless you exercise a little discipline. This doesn’t have to be as painful and no fun as it sounds.
Before you take on a new job, sit down and write down all of your priorities, followed by about how much time they take up each week. Estimate on the high end. Then decipher how much time you require to chill out with your BFF, tweet your heart out, etc. Now crunch the numbers and visually perceive how much time you’ll have to work. Even if it’s only enough for a shift or two a week of work, that’s fine. That is of course, unless you require working a certain amount each month to pay for rent and other cost-of-living expenses, in which case you might be obliged to skimp on socializing time.
Once you have your schedule sorted out, it’s important to stick to the rules. If you decided the only way to make it all work is to devote one weekend night each week to doing school work, utilize this time efficiently and don’t get distracted by a “16 and Pregnant” marathon. By developing these time management skills now, you’ll be ready down the road when life throws even more responsibilities your way. The next step to balancing school, work and a busy life is to be organized. When having a lot on your plate it is very crucial to keeping a calendar to mark upcoming tests, deadlines and meetings can be helpful.
First writing down all your assignment and their due date can help you keep everything up to date. Second have all your paperwork in separate labels folder can making getting to assignments quick and easy. If you know you have a conference coming up in a fortnight and a paper due in three, you won’t have any exculpation not to acquire that paper finished on time, and you won’t miss any of the exhilaration at your conference. Endeavor utilizing a day planner, or even an online calendar to manage your tasks.
Surprises and extemporaneous events virtually always pop up, but if you’re flexible with your time and stay on top of your assignments for work and for school, emergencies won’t disrupt your entire schedule as dramatically. The last step to balancing school, work and a busy life is communication. When you have a busy lifestyle it’s very hard to keep everything in order without communication. First when you are late on, an assignment, contacting your teachers can let them know what is going on and also show them that you are very responsible student.
Next letting your boss knows when important school assignment comes up. As a busy person I know how hard it is to keep up. Keeping constant communication with teachers, bosses and family members will help you keep everything in order. Your managers aren’t mind readers. Speak up and let them know that your job is important to you but that you also have school and family as priorities, and they’ll be more liable to be flexible. Particularly if you have a spouse and children, it’s critical that you communicate your schedule so everyone is on the same page.
That way, if you have a final exam coming up, you can orchestrate dinner and nighttime responsibilities together accordingly. An online calendar program works well, so you can update it in real time. Likewise, keep an online or handwritten to do list to help you prioritize tasks and stay organized daily. Having a busy schedule isn’t an easy thing to handle. If you are not prepared it can feel like a whole lot or work is being pulled up. Being organized, making a flexible schedule and communicating with your boss, teachers and family members, can help you efficiently keep everything together.