Juggling a degree, work shift, and social life is something every student knows from first-hand experience. It’s always stressful and demanding to stay on top of your duties. The most common thing people get from their college years is burnout which can affect every aspect of their life. The worst thing is you might be too critical of yourself and dismiss it as being lazy or ungrateful for opportunities you have.
Yet, if you approach everything responsibly and plan things, you can avoid the worst-case scenario and enjoy your time. One essential aspect of it is to prioritize your tasks and use academic paper writing help by WritePaper to finish your assignments within the deadline. Your main goal as a student is to keep up with academic progress, care for your mental and physical health, and then dedicate your time to your work. The rest comes with practice, patience, and kindness to yourself.
If you feel that your job experience leaves you overwhelmed, you might want to see the cause of such intense feeling. Sometimes it’s not even your fault that things might go wrong, so you need to be extra realistic about the situation. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself because no one ever benefited from toxic productivity and exhaustion.
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Time Management Is Key
Schedules and time management apps can be not everyone’s cup of tea. It depends on your personality, how you perceive life, and how you approach your tasks. Many people feel more comfortable when they live in a state of chaos. Arguably, these people can survive any time of unexpected situation and make the most of it.
However, when you are a novice in managing different major tasks at once, like work and studies, you might want to bring more clarity to your day-to-day routines. Having something new, like a job, can destabilize the usual order of things, even if you are a chaotic and artistic type.
Prioritize Your Tasks
Let’s say you’ve got your studies in the morning, then you have an evening shift, and between the two main events, you need to figure out what to do. Prioritizing your tasks can help you to save some time in the future. When you do everything according to its urgency, you don’t have to write your essay at the last minute or feel stressed that your daily chores pile up.
Eisenhower Matrix is one of the most helpful techniques to master your prioritizing:
- Do: urgent and important task should be done right away;
- Schedule: important but not urgent tasks can be done when you feel like it;
- Delegate: urgent but not important tasks that you can do after your important ones;
- Delete: not urgent nor important, which can wait for much later;
Use a Time Planner and Master List
Some people work best when their whole day is set by minutes. Others like to write down all tasks they need to do in a week or a month, and then they just cross them out after completion. Whatever works for you, try different methods:
- Use productivity apps to create comprehensive and useful lists;
- Write the list by hand;
- Check out things you did or make notes to self how was your day.
It is easier to navigate in your life when you reflect on what you did, what can be improved, and how you can do something. It’s a nice subgenre of journaling and keeping yourself accountable.
Overcome Procrastination
You are not a bad person or not motivated enough if you procrastinate. You need to figure out what stands in your way and makes you procrastinate. For instance, you need an energy boost to stay awake after your shift, or you are a perfectionist who needs to do everything so well, you feel stuck. Or you just don’t really like the task, which is okay too.
Sometimes it is helpful to talk with a professional about your daily struggles. An outsider’s perspective on your situation can really bring new solutions.
Don’t Be Afraid to Ask For Help
Many people believe that asking for help is not for them, when it is the greatest way of communication in reality. When you learn to vocalize your concerns, you avoid additional misunderstandings and problems. It also helps you to maintain set boundaries with your employer or professor.
Your plans changed? Ask your colleague if you can swap shifts. Something goes wrong with your assignment? Contact professional academic help to figure the instructions out.
Set Healthy Boundaries
You shouldn’t overthink your job when you spend time with your family or friends or work while you need to study. Remember that you need to differentiate the time you spend doing something specific to stay as productive as possible. Even master multitaskers need a clear understanding and prioritizing of their tasks.
Healthy boundaries exist not only as a concept you should adhere to. You also need to communicate and explain to your employer when you can’t work overtime. It may be hard to stand your ground, but you would thank yourself later for not letting your manager decide your life schedule.
Reward Yourself for Your Achievements
You may be working to achieve a bigger goal in the future or add extra experience for your resume. Whatever your long-term goal is, every baby step you are doing deserves recognition. You’re not a millionaire after a week of working? Not an issue, you won’t benefit much if you constantly criticize yourself and put rest and nice things on a long shelf.
Acknowledging your achievements can have any form. You can go out for drinks after an intense week, practice mindfulness or yoga, go to the gym, and do something that will help you to restore your energy in general. Or, you can just lay down and scroll through the TikTok feed if that helps you to relax. There’s no single formula that works best because everyone’s needs are different.
Create a Strong Support System
Always share your wins with people who will genuinely celebrate it with you. Even if you are a loner and prefer to keep your emotions to yourself, a kind word can brighten your day. Having people around doesn’t mean you have to share only positive news. You need a strong shoulder that can help you get back on track when you need it.
You might also need to cut extensive criticism from others. Constructive criticism can help you to stay determined. Yet, you don’t need people in your life that display toxic nitpicking. The last thing you want in your life is fake relationships when you’re balancing your work and studies.
The Bottom Line
Balancing your work and studies is a good exercise before you enter adult life. It helps you to control your finances, be responsible, and communicate with others. It’s normal when something goes wrong or you don’t have energy for a job. It’s not a requirement to start your career the moment you enter college.
It is crucial to take a step back when you feel emotions and tasks pile up and honestly access the scale of work. You are only human trying to do their best in this life.
