Whether you want to advance your career or change career paths, studying while you work is an excellent idea. However, since both full-time work and full-time study are demanding, you’ll need to learn how to manage the work and performance expected from your company and school. In this blog, we’ll give you tips on how to balance full-time work and study as you pursue your journey.
6 Tips for Work and Study Balance
1. Plan Carefully
One key to succeeding as a working student in the Philippines is planning carefully. Start by planning your workload ahead of time. Ask yourself: Given your regular professional workload, how many units can you handle at school? Be realistic about your limits so you don’t overextend yourself.
Use a calendar for your personal, academic, and professional life. Map out life events, professional events, and important academic deadlines. A calendar will help you prioritize your commitments. This way, you’ll have sufficient time for both work and study, as well as your personal life.
2. Communicate with Your Employer
An employer, who is willing to support their employees’ academic pursuits, will be open to hear your commitment and plan to improve your knowledge and skillset. So don’t hesitate to talk with your immediate supervisor about studying while you work and check out your company’s study policies to know what they can offer.
While most master’s and bachelor’s degree programs for working adults accommodate work schedules, you may also need to adjust your work schedule to give yourself more time to study.
For example, you could compact your work hours or request more work-from-home days to reduce commute time. You could also talk with your supervisor to move deadlines around midterms and finals weeks.
Be smart about your leaves, too. You could schedule your leaves around midterms and finals to allow you to focus on your studies.
3. Learn to Manage Your Time and Workload
Time management is any student’s (and professional’s) biggest hurdle. With so many distractions nowadays, it’s so easy to procrastinate and cram. These may not only result in mediocre or poor output but also put you in high stress level situations. If you want to find a balance between work and study, you’ll need to learn to efficiently manage your time.
Establish a routine that will set you up for consistent productivity. Apart from setting a time solely for work and then studying, set up a study space in your home, make sure family and friends are aware of your study time so they know to limit bothering you, and finally, hide your phone or use apps that will lock away these distractions.
Practices like these will help you avoid procrastinating and cramming.
4. Seek Support
It’s a cliché but it’s true: “No man is an island.” While the majority of the responsibility is on you, you still need the support of other people. Just like you can ask for your supervisor’s support, you could also get support from your peers in your course.
You can help each other make studying while working manageable by updating each other about announcements, exchanging notes, sharing ideas, and if schedule allows, holding group studies.
Plus, they could become your friends or be part of your professional network.
5. Take Care of your Health
Let’s not forget about your health. When you are sick, feeling ill, or are dealing with stress that mentally drains your body and mind, you cannot be at your best as a student or professional. So, don’t neglect both your physical and mental health.
When pursuing a bachelor’s or master’s degree for working adults in the Philippines, it will seem like you barely have time for work and study, much less rest and exercise but both are important. Remember the calendar in our first tip? Use that to schedule time for exercise, rest, and quality time with friends and family.
Rest could mean taking short breaks between studying or allotting 30-minute “Me time” to do your hobbies or exercise. Yes, exercise could be considered rest, too, since you’re taking a break from processing information.
Physical activities are a must when you’re working and studying, because they will not only help strengthen your body, but also help you relieve stress and avoid burnout.
6. Remember Why You’re Doing This
Balancing work and study, then making time for personal life and health, as well, seems overwhelming. There may be days when you’ll feel like there is so much to do but so little time, but one way to shake this off is by keeping your eye on your goal.
Knowing your goals and how each step will bring you closer to them will help you stay motivated even on your most difficult days. It helps to write down your goals. You could even tape it somewhere you can always see it.
Advance Your Education and Career with OEd
A bachelor’s or master’s degree is sure to open new opportunities. Get into a study mindset with these tips on how to balance full-time work and study, so you can achieve your life goals with quality online education from OEd.
OEd offers online bachelor’s and master’s degrees for working adults in the Philippines. Learn foundational and practical knowledge and skills that will help you pursue your dream career.
Learn with us today!