5 Ways to Balance Work and School Life

How on earth do you balance work and school while still trying to have a life? For me, it can be a constant struggle trying to juggle everything I have going on. There have been days where I’m so overwhelmed that I just want to leave and lay on the beach on some tropical island. Unfortunately, we can’t run away from all our problems, so I’ve come up with five ways to help you manage your time and your life!

I have three jobs, am a full time college student, run a blog and try to have a life. So, the question is how do I do all of that? In today’s post I’m going to share 5 tips and tricks on finding balance in your life.

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STAY ORGANIZED TO FIND BALANCE

Finding balance is all about staying organized. If you take away anything from this post, take away this tip. You need to stay organized in order to have balance in your life, at least I do. I often have so many things going that if I wasn’t organized then I would forget when papers are due or when I go to work.

I like to have every single thing I need to do, places I need to be, or assignments that need to get done written down in multiple ways. With that said, I have four ways to plan my days. Yup, you read that right, four. Might be a bit overkill, but it keeps me really organized. I’m just going to share two of my favorites.  

Phone Calendar

I absolutely love having my calendar on my phone. It’s been a life saver and I use it every single day. Because it’s on my phone, I put where I need to be throughout the month. I have work, school, events, bill due dates, birthdays. You can also set it to remind you for birthdays or to pay certain bills. I personally have an iPhone, so I use Apple’s calendar. I also love how I have access to it on all my Apple products, I don’t have to worry about writing it on my phone and not seeing it on my computer or iPad.

Physical Planner

Having a physical planner is my favorite way to keep track of what I need. There’s just something about crossing off a to do task. I keep it right by my desktop so I’m able to see it very easily. I use my planner primarily for my day to day to do list.  Each week I like to write out every single thing that I need to do and update it throughout the week. My favorite physical planners are the Happy Planner and DIY’ing a bullet journal. 

I have school assignments, blog posts to write, videos to make, etc. I love having a dedicated spot for all of my to dos. Being a student, I often have big assignments that can take quite a while to finish. Planning out my to do’s at the beginning of each week, I’m able to see if I need to start anything earlier or not. I want to make a note that I also write down my personal tasks too! I include things like do laundry, or water plants.

Related: 5 Ways I Get Organized For School

KNOW YOURSELF

Take some time and get to know yourself. There are four questions you should ask yourself.

1. Am I a AM or PM person? For me, I am an AM person through and through. This means that I schedule anything important I need to get done in the morning. If I were to start doing something at night, I would lose all focus and not get it done. If you’re a night person, maybe do the opposite.

2. What makes me happy? Finding little things that make you happy is crucial to finding balance. I love taking 5 minutes to paint my nails, or finishing up early in my day to watch my favorite show. Keeping yourself happy while life is busy will help you stay sane.

3. What do I need help with? This question is so important! Reflect on what you struggle finding time doing. I found myself not having enough time to cook dinner for my boyfriend and I every single night. I’m able to have more time during the week when he helps out cooking once or twice a week. Maybe you need help cleaning up your home. See if your partner or children could help out with some cleaning tasks. Perhaps it’s with your schoolwork, go find a tutor to help!

4. What do I want in life? I love this question and probably ask myself this at least once a week. When times are tough, I just remember that all the hard work I’m putting in now is going to get me where I want to be. If work is tough, remember that it pays the bills! When school get so difficult just think about how it’ll help you get that dream job!

The point of learning about yourself is to help maximize your time and be more efficient with your day. I love finding new quirks about myself and seeing how I can help myself become a more productive person. The afternoon is when I tend to  need a pick me up after being busy all morning. To help me tackle this, I like to take a walk or do some yoga to get me back into the work mindset.

LEARNING YOUR PRIORITIES

Odds are, you will not have the time to do every single thing you want to do in your day. Somedays I am super productive and can cross each thing off my to-do list. However, most days I’m lucky if I can do 3-4 tasks. This is where finding your priorities comes in.

Each day I make a huge list of everything I would ideally like to get done. I number the tasks in the order of what has to get done that day. For me, being in college, my school assignments are on the top of my priority. Then my personal things such as taking photos for my blog or writing a new blog post. Towards the end of my list are thing such as doing a load of laundry or watching a new movie. I absolutely love crossing things off, it makes me feel productive and accomplished.

Anything that I didn’t have time to get done that day I move it to the top of the list for the following day. This continues on a daily basis and normally by the end of each week, I’m able to cross everything off.

This tip coincides with having flexibility. A lot of times I want to go out and take pictures for a blog post, but it’s raining out or a paper I’m working on needs more time than I thought. Being more flexible with my schedule and my life allows me to keep my stress levels much lower. 

FIND TIME TO HAVE FUN

Having a stressful life isn’t that fun. Sometimes we all need a way to let loose and have some fun. For me, I like to go shopping, watch tv or Youtube videos and work on some craft projects.

Finding time to have fun in your life doesn’t have to be difficult. If I don’t have my relaxing times, then the stressful times would feel that much more stressful. Having “me time” is one of my priorities each day. On busier days it may be doing a hair mask or painting my nails.

When possible I try to knock out a couple things at once. If I need some fashion content, I like to go to the store to relax and enjoy myself. Even though I’m shopping, I’m also helping out my blog. I’ll watch tv and work on some woven wall art. You get the gist, I try to make the most of the free time that I do have.

MEAL PLAN

This might seem like an odd tip but trust me, it will help you find balance in your life. Sometimes, the last thing I want to do after a long day is to find the time to find a recipe and cook dinner. Now, I don’t mean the whole meal prep and put everything into containers.

I simply mean just take some time to decide out your meals for the week. This has helped me so much recently, especially if I know I need to thaw something out, I am reminded to take it out in the morning. Not having to worry about finding a recipe has saved me so much time and I’m able to get started right away. I like to plan out a general meal schedule each week. This helps my grocery shopping as well. I am able to make sure I get anything I need for the week and not have to rush to the store for an ingredient I need.

Those are my favorite ways to stay sane and keep balance in my busy and hectic life. What are some ways that you balance work and school life?

-Camille Grey-