Working while you’re trying to further your education can become a complicated juggling act and it’s very easy to get burnt out trying to fit so much into your life. Using some effective time management techniques can take a huge strain off your tired mind and will help you organize your schedule to fit everything in while reducing your stress.
Create a Schedule
Making a schedule for yourself and dividing your day up into blocks for work, class, study, and rest will give you an excellent guideline on what you should be doing in your day. For more complicated class or work schedules, it may be a good idea to keep two separate planners, one for work and one for school. In order to prevent yourself from burning out, leave chunks of time designated for relaxing or socializing.
Stay Focused On Your Current Task
This can be a hard one, but when you’re in class, forget about work. When you’re at work, put school and studying out of your mind completely. This could take some practice, but when you’re trying to relax and your mind is concentrating on worry and stress, you aren’t going to get any actual rest and you’ll just tire yourself out more quickly. Try to think only on what you can deal with at that time and you’ll generally feel much calmer and relaxed overall.
Prioritize Your Goals
Some people often try to give every aspect of their life their best effort and when you’ve got too much on your plate, this can burn you out very quickly. You could be faced with hard decisions, but prioritize your life in terms of which classes are most important to you and how attached you are to your job. If you have a clear idea of what your goals are, you’ll find it easier to choose which task to focus on when there truly just isn’t enough time left in your day.
Work Smart
It’s great to give everything your best effort whenever you can, but working smart instead of working too hard can help you accomplish more. Forcing yourself to study when you’re too tired will prevent you from getting the sleep you need and you probably won’t retain much information while you’re in an exhausted state of mind. Be realistic with the time you allow yourself for certain project as being over ambitious in your scheduling could leave you with incomplete work you’ve made unnecessary mistakes on.
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