It is impossible to draw a solid line between the intangibles of our life. Perhaps that is why most of us struggle while juggling roles in the hope of striking a balance between them. It gets even more difficult as you continue adding things to your plate, like family and relationships. However, the most common of these hurdles occur when students try creating a schedule to study while working full-time jobs.
It is a stage that comes into the life of every individual where they can no longer call them only students or professional employees. They have to survive in the middle ground to meet their day-to-day needs and accomplish their education goals by managing the two.
Unfortunately, not every person is competent enough to perform well in these roles simultaneously. It requires not just focus and resolve, but a considerable amount of practice before they are comfortable with it. That often results in forcing students to give up their career goals and education because of that and compromise their future.
Luckily enough, there are several ways that you can try to overcome these obstacles. Not all of them are going to have a standard effect on your progress, but you can notice a significant impact by integrating them with your study habits. Learn more about them to decide what’s best for you or bring all of them into exercise and let the results speak for themselves.
Here are some tips for creating a schedule to study while working full-time for further assistance in pursuing either of these roles. These should highlight your shortcomings and can direct your attention to ways through which you can make yourself more productive.
1. Improving the reading speed
Ever watch a movie or program and feel that some portions or drags the pace of the entire show? The same idea applies to written materials, and you don’t need to be super attentive while reading every section. That means that you can substantially increase your reading speed by skimming through some portions of it.
Similarly, you can work on improving your comprehension skills to cut down the time you spend working on every piece. It will allow you to complete the same task with greater efficiency and follow a balanced study and work schedule despite the workload.
2. Breakdown tasks into manageable chunks
Micromanaging every task is unlikely, but you can still break things into small bits so that it’s easier to work with them. To start with it, you have to assume a systematic approach and figure the number of hours and workload that you have for a week. Once you have those, all you have do is designate the amount of study time to each task so that you can track your progress every hour.
It’s almost like budgeting to invest your time. If you can’t accommodate your education in the time that you have, then you will have to try to extract more time from your schedule. That should help you study while working full-time at a job.
3. Productive commute hours
We spend an ample amount of time traveling to workplaces, institutions, and then back to our homes. These are empty slots that often get wasted, but can be significantly productive with a little effort. All you need to do is motivate yourself and prepare convenient studying methods for this time.
Using flashcards is a start to help you with it. Recording lectures and listening to other audio resources can also be equally helpful. Try these out for maximum productivity and making the most of your commute to balance work and education.
4. Multitasking through routine activities
Besides commute, there are no other daily activities that barely occupy our minds. Workouts, bathroom breaks, and cooking time are the common ones of these that take most of your time. Since there is no thinking involved in them, you can use this time more productively by finding ways to study during it.
Audio lectures and flashcards can offer adequate support for these. You might feel that these minor slots won’t do you any good, but they are the next best thing if you can’t find lumps of time to study.
5. Studying through vacations
It should come off as no shock that you will need to invest your vacation periods into studying to get ahead of others to compensate for the lack of time. Particular jobs offer extended vacation periods around different times of the year. Use them to cover your curriculum and leave yourself with as less workload as possible for the days when you have to work. That might still be an imbalance, but it can help you with creating a schedule to study while working full-time.
6. Necessary Sacrifice
You must have come across a social media gag, which shows how you have to sacrifice one or more things in life to manage others. It turns out that it isn’t only something for the laughs, especially while studying and working at the same time.
You have to cut down on your social and recreational activities if you wish to maintain both these activities without fail. To some people, it could be the decisive factor in determining the roles they want to take at an instance. What you can do to diminish its impact is to juggle the sacrifices that you make each day, so you don’t feel deprived of a particular element in your life.
7. Eyes on the prize
Always keep a clear picture of your end goal in your head to avoid losing faith and deviating from it. While performing these tasks simultaneously every day, you can easily find yourself frustrated and depressed from being stretched between the two roles. That can discourage you to the point of giving up. The only way to penetrate that phase is by recalling what you plan to achieve and why you started doing it. That should reinvigorate the zest and push to continue treading forward.
Summary
These tips for creating a schedule to study while working full-time jobs should help you manage your life more efficiently. Try to bring them into practice, and remember to use every moment productively. Keep yourself motivated along the journey, and the rewards will be sufficiently satisfying for you.
