To succeed in anything, from getting your degree to maintaining friendships to working, you need to lead a balanced life. What is a work/life balance? In short, work/life balance is the balance reached when a person focuses on their personal and professional obligations equally. For students who may be coming from a world where the majority of their basic requirements were met, juggling academics, roommates, co-curricular activities, work, finances, and personal relationships in a completely new and different setting is a huge adjustment. You’d be amazed to learn that you can manage a work/life balance at uni, even if you believe you don’t have the time. You just need to take the appropriate action!
Managing A Work/Life Balance At Uni
Socialising is important
It’s very easy to become completely absorbed in your work and spend days and days doing nothing but reading and writing, but doing so will harm your relationships. It is critical to make an effort to make time for friends, partners, and family. You’ll need them to help you through the tough times in Uni, so make sure you spend time with them when you’re not struggling and can have fun with them.
Isolation can increase stress levels and make juggling all of your commitments seem much more difficult, so having the right people to support you when you’re studying is critical; a problem shared is a problem halved!
Start a journal
Sometimes at Uni, feelings accumulate, and you don’t have time to process them because you’re so busy. Journaling can help you release those feelings in a healthy way while also increasing your productivity! Journaling will help you stay healthy and will allow you to practice sticking to a schedule. Another advantage is that you will improve your writing skills.
Make time for physical activities
Stay active! Movement is vital to help with blood flow, especially when you’ve been sitting for 10 hours straight. No matter if it’s easy yoga, a stroll, going to the gym, or whatever you have time for and the capacity to accomplish. Try to move about every 30 to 15 minutes when you are cramming for your exams!
Practice Self-care
When you’re pressed for time and juggling multiple priorities, the last thing you want is to become ill. Your health should be your number one priority, so take care of yourself. This can be as simple as not attending every party or event, exercising on a regular basis, or simply getting enough sleep. We often burn the candle at both ends as university students, waking up early for classes and staying out late. But you can only do this for so long before it all comes crashing down on you.
Manage your time
Although it appears simple, time management is essential for leading a balanced life. Prioritising tasks and scheduling them in a calendar or diary are the keys to effective time management. Just be sure to allow yourself adequate time for each work. You stay on track if you schedule certain times to do various activities. Maintaining a detailed and up-to-date to-do list or checklist can also aid in time management. This gives you an overview of everything you need to do and helps you allocate enough time for studying while balancing a part-time job and your social life. Of course, don’t be too hard on yourself if you wind up going out to lunch with friends when you should be studying; simply accept that your study time will need to be rescheduled. It can be challenging to manage your time, but with experience, you’ll get better, and it will make a huge difference.
Choose a job that works for you
We understand that life can be expensive while you’re studying and that having a job is usually required to pay for textbooks and other study materials. However, it is critical to choose a job that is a good fit for you. Because your free time will vary from semester to semester and you will have exam periods, it is critical to find a job that is flexible and understands your university commitments. You need to learn how to be confident with navigating your diary, as you can’t let your job get in the way of your studies. Determine how many hours you can realistically work in a week while still having time for study and social activities. Make sure your boss is aware of all of this ahead of time, as it will take a huge weight off your shoulders when university gets busy and you need to request a decrease in your working hours.
Be efficient and productive
Being productive and efficient may appear to be an obvious tip, but it can be much more complex than you think. Make an effort to be productive from the start of the semester! Even if it appears that there isn’t much to do, every lecture you miss or notes you don’t write will eventually need to be completed, so why not use this slow period to stay on top of things – you’ll thank yourself when it comes to exam time. No matter how tempting it is to put things off until the last minute, doing so can make it challenging to live a balanced life. To manage your time wisely, avoid procrastination, and avoid distractions.
Chose a healthy work environment
Choosing the right study environment is critical to ensuring that the time you spend working is as productive as possible. Whether you live in a house or a student home, it’s difficult not to take your work to the kitchen or living room as soon as you hear other people socialising. This is probably not the best option because it always takes a lot longer to get anything done and is a lot more distracting.
Conclusion
Every student requires both a personal and professional life. You could quickly start to experience physical, emotional, and mental suffering if you don’t Manage A Work/Life Balance At Uni. Continuously favouring work or school over your relationships, physical and mental health, or personal care might actually cause a drop in academic performance because all of these factors are crucial for keeping you at the top of your game.
