Balancing School and Work: A Guide to Time Management

07/07/2010

 

 

Juggling school, homework, chores, extracurricular activities, time with your friends, and a first job can be challenging. One positive outcome of having a full schedule is that you are forced to learn crucial time management skills. By learning these skills early, you will be able to manage your time now and in the future.

It may be impossible to have more than 24 hours in a day, but if you practice using your time efficiently, you can get more out of the time you have. Follow the tips below and you may find yourself accomplishing more in less time!

1. Use spare time wisely. Have 20 minutes to spare between work and basketball practice? Pull out your homework and get some of it done—it could mean you have 5 fewer math problems to finish later. Does your mom drive you to work? Get some homework done in the car!
    
2. Don’t procrastinate. Even if a paper isn’t due for weeks, if you find yourself with spare time start working on it! You’ll be glad you did later.
    
3. Keep a detailed schedule. The more carefully you keep track of your schedule, the less likely you are to tell your boss you have to work the same night you have a swim meet.
    
4. Break large projects into smaller parts. It’s often hard to start a project that will take a few hours or a whole day. If you can divide the work into more manageable time blocks, you can more easily fit the work into your busy schedule. By spending a half-hour or an hour on the project each day, you can make gradual progress instead of feeling pressured to do it all at once.
    
5. Set goals that are realistic. You want to have to stretch to achieve your goals, but don’t take on too much and set yourself up for failure. Don’t tell your boss that you can work 20 hours a week if you have soccer practice every afternoon and you have to study for a huge test.
    
6. Balance work, school, and play, but stick to your priorities. Don’t let yourself get into a situation where you are working too much and letting your schoolwork suffer. Or you are too concerned about hanging out with your friends that you don’t pick up those extra hours at work. Learning to balance work and the rest of your life is a skill that you will use until you retire.
    
7. Don’t waste time worrying about a task. Just do it. Sometimes when you are really dreading doing something (that biology report or cleaning your room), it is easy to waste valuable time worrying about how you are ever going to find enough time to get it done. All that worry (and procrastination) just leaves you with less time in the end.
    

Some of the most successful people we have profiled here on First Jobs have credited their first job with teaching them time management skills. Check out John Connelly's and Martin Ringlein's profiles to see what else their first jobs taught them!