How to Balance Study and a Job

Posing this question to people, most of them will instantly think of students at university working in the evenings and weekends and studying during the day. This is a growing problem for families as many people are looking to retrain in a different career. In this case the problem is reversed, since people are trying to study during evenings and weekends and work during the day, with the day-to-day running of a household the pressures grow.

The decision should not be what has to be given up but how the two can be melded together. The basic coping strategies for both full time education and evening classes are often similar. The first statement is usually “make time for yourself” with little luxuries to treat yourself i.e. a hot bath and candles or a film and pizza with your friends.

People often find themselves feeling so guilty that they aren’t doing something they find it impossible to relax enough to enjoy their “time for themselves”. This leads to more stress, catching up with what they think they have missed out on. The trick is to find a way to manage your time so that when you have your “me time” it really is “me time”.

Many self-help books give you a plan to follow, these are good if you have the time to read them. So where to start? The first thing is that good old list. List all the things you need to be doing in a week. The next thing you need to do is look at who else uses the things on your list i.e. the washing or tidying the house, talk to the people who benefit from those chores being done, and ask how they can help or how you can help them.

The next step is to look at your revision timetable. You may think you have to study into the wee small hours but most people remember little from midnight onwards. Are you are a morning or afternoon person? Look at your working hours, a couple of hours’ study when you are at your best is worth more than 3-4 hours stressed and tired—‘little and often’ sometimes helps. Explain to the people around you that this is your revision time, this should be followed by your “me time”—find something that you can pick up and switch off to. Following your revision with your “me time” means that you know you have done as much as your brain will cope with and this is your reward.

“Me time” isn’t about indulgence, it is about giving your brain time to regenerate ready for the next cramming session, balancing study and a job is about organisation and determination to do things when you have set the time for, you may not feel comfortable with this at first it will soon come and you will easily get the hang of it.

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