If you’re fooling yourself that you can combine work with studies efficiently, without compromise, while maintaining a social life and your nerves intact at the other end, get that foolish chimera out of your head.
Work-life-study balance is no leisurely stroll; it is an arduous undertaking that’s not for the fainthearted. But fun-hungry students’ pockets tend to dry up quickly, and most of them choose to start work to make ends meet.
A college job is also a great way to accumulate work experience early on and graduate college with some professional baggage already under your belt.
Without further ado, here are our top pits for not just making this high-intensity lifestyle work but also making the most of it.
Set Priorities Straight
Before you commit to pursuing multiple avenues at once, you need to clearly define your priorities and ultimate goals. People are not perfect robots, we have our mental and physical limits, and unless you have built-in AI support like Iron Man, there will come a time when you get stuck and need to make a choice.
Unless you somehow managed to land a decent job that is also relevant to your profession of choice and can pave your path to a future career better than your university, college studies should always come first, with your job being more of a side hustle for earning some walking around money and enhancing your overall college experience.
It is practically impossible to constantly stay on top of such a congested routine. Even though a college job is supposed to play a secondary, supporting role in work-study balance, students often end up falling behind on their studies because of their work responsibilities. Next time you’re pleading ‘’someone make me an essay’’! faced with a fast-encroaching deadline, trust the leading online writing service to cover you while you make a living.
Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle
More often than not, busy lifestyles force people to cut corners on their diet and sleep. For the immediate benefit of saving some time, they are compromising both their health and long-term performance in college and work. As a result, they are constantly drained of energy, inefficient, and unable to properly focus on their tasks and do them meaningfully.
Juggling studies, work, and life requires stamina, mental sharpness, and physical readiness, for which a healthy balanced diet and adequate sleep is the only source. Here’s an article explaining in more depth what the benefits are of a healthier lifestyle in education. So absolutely make sure whatever responsibilities you take up don’t conflict with your basic health requirements. Sneaking in an occasional workout would be even better, but that might be a little too much to ask.
Know your limits
Attending a few lectures with a ready mind, fresh from a full night’s rest, then readily reporting for duty on your evening shift, and finally, going out for a few drinks with friends to blow off some steam. What a complete, productive, and satisfying day! Sure, you could pull this off in one cycle, but is it sustainable in the long run?
You need to make sure you don’t strain yourself to the breaking point by overshooting the runway with how much responsibility you burden yourself with. You need to know when to back down. Quality over quantity should be your accompanying slogan! If you start to feel like you’re overstrained, ease up and do less with higher quality.
Final Thoughts
Multitasking can easily turn counterproductive. Trying to do two things at once, you might end up half-assing both and would be better off picking a single lane. This is to say that if you start to feel that you’re compromising your studies and sacrificing your much-needed social life, it might not be the wisest choice to hold on to an entry-level job that doesn’t even lead anywhere or pay well enough. The work-study combination is not for everyone, so make sure you have what it takes and are seriously committed before taking up such responsibility.
Author’s bio
Joanne Elliot is a skilled web journalist and essayist. Having to regularly cover a wide range of topics in depth has shaped her into a well-rounded, broadly capable writer enjoying high employer demand and an army of dedicated followers. A naturally gifted storyteller, Joanne recently started to host a delightfully entertaining fictional blog that quickly became readers’ favorite.