Last Updated on September 10, 2022 by Larious

Juggling employment and education requires careful time management. Whether you’re working to pay your tuition or getting another degree to advance your existing career, balancing your professional and school life can be challenging, especially if you have other obligations, like parenting, that also demand your attention. It’s not a shortage of time that causes problems; rather, it’s how poorly individuals organize their schedules.

If you’re working while going to school full time, here are some ways to maximize your productivity.

Design a Schedule

One of the most common pieces of advice for managing one’s time is to create a schedule, and there’s a valid reason for this: it actually helps. If you have been ignoring this sound advice in the past, I am including it here again in the hopes that you will start taking it to heart. Without writing down what we want to accomplish that day, we are more likely to forget about things, give them little priority, or become overwhelmed and give up. Trust me when I tell you that making a plan and committing it to paper is incredibly effective; I know this from experience.

Developing a routine and sticking to it is the first step to efficient time management. Time your day in 30-minute increments and fill in the non-negotiables first, such as classes and jobs. Having a better idea of how much time you have to devote to studying and other activities will be made possible by this. Once again, this piece of advice may be overlooked due to its seeming lack of complexity, but it is one of the most beneficial things you can do so long as you truly try to keep to the schedule you create.

Strive to Procrastinate Less

We, humans, are a peculiar bunch, and we tend to put off completing the things that we know we should get done as soon as possible. These are usually the less-than-exciting jobs, like the reading assigned for your least favorite class or the research paper that will make or break your grade.

When people consider everything they have to do to complete a task, they often feel helpless. People do nothing because they believe there is nothing they can do to change the situation. Then we start to feel anxious about how much work is still ahead of us, and we procrastinate once again. They distract themselves with other things, usually mundane chores like doing the laundry, to make them feel better about putting it off.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by what seems like an impossible task, try breaking it down into smaller tasks. It’s far easier to complete a large project if you divide it up into smaller, more manageable chunks.

Most people struggle to manage their time well when they procrastinate. There are, however, measures you can do to lessen this propensity.

Think about how doing nothing will affect you. Keeping in mind all the bad things that will happen if you put off your schooling until the last minute is an effective motivator. Regardless of how challenging or boring the task at hand may be, putting it off will almost certainly be worse.

Setting aside regular work time and switching up what you do during that time can be very productive. Reading and tackling the paper in manageable portions helps your mind from getting stale, and it may help alleviate the stress that can come from facing the full thing at once. By breaking up your schoolwork into smaller, more manageable chunks, you can keep your mind from getting too stale and also make some progress on the many assignments you have.

Master the Art Of Sacrifice

You’ve worked hard, so reward yourself with some rest and relaxation. This may be anything from a long soak in the tub to a binge-watching session of your favorite shows.

Avoiding burnout is crucial to your success, so be sure to give yourself plenty of time off. However, realizing that you may have to skip or curtail this time of doing nothing is a necessary part of living a balanced life.

Because you’ve been working so hard all day, you may feel like you deserve to relax and watch three hours of television instead of starting the outline for that research paper you’ve been putting off for the past week. The “all or nothing” mentality is not necessary. Rather than wasting time on something that won’t help you get anywhere (like, say, watching multiple episodes of your favorite program in a row), focus on taking a short break that will help you get back into the swing of things. So you can get back to work feeling revitalized and ready to make progress.

It goes without saying that you should do what makes you happy, but if you want to improve your life and the lives of your loved ones, whether that’s professionally or financially, then you’ll need to exercise some self-control.

It may be worthwhile to cut back on TV and YouTube viewing time if it means getting closer to your career goals.