Balancing a full-time job while also being a student is no small feat. As a working student, your time management skills need to be on point.
You’re balancing between studying, doing class assignments, working your shifts, and handling any personal responsibilities that are on your plate.
When you work hard and study hard, it’ll feel there aren’t enough hours in the day to even rest!
Fail to plan properly and all hell could break loose.
The good news? With right kind of systems, you can stay on top of everything and may even some time to rest.
To help you get by, here are my 7 time management tips for working students.
1. Map Out Your Schedule
Let’s face it, when you’re juggling work and school at the same time, a regular to-do list won’t cut it.
You need to see your week as a big picture. Get a planner if you can, I recommend a weekly planner. I personally use the Dailee Planner since I can plan out my workouts and meals for the week, but any weekly may do.
Whatever planner you get, digital or physical, you need it to have:
- A Monthly Calendar
- A Weekly Overview
- A Daily Page
Now, look at your schedule for school and add all the important due dates for any assignment, project, or test to it.
Once you’re done, look at your work schedule and block out the hours that you’re working. If you have work responsibilities that have to be done, add it to your schedule.
Now that you got all the important stuff down, it’s easier to see how full your schedule really is on a day-to-day and week-by-week schedule.
Remember, you’re going to be doing this every week. I personally plan out my schedule, tasks, and routines every Sunday.
If you’re looking at your schedule and are thinking about how you’re going to be able to survive this, maybe it’s time to change your routine.
The first step in changing your routine is to look over what you want and how to make things more efficient.
If you need help with ideas in changing your routine, you can read one of my previous blog posts where I talked about how you build your own routine.
Otherwise, you’re ready for the next part.
2. Rank Your School Tasks
Not all your tasks are going to be equal in importance.
You know the difference in importance between a regular discussion assignment, an essay, and an exam.
You know that each one will take up a certain amount of time from your day.
To avoid becoming overwhelmed, you’ll need to rank your school tasks into three categories:
- Must Do – Urgent Tasks like deadlines, exams, or scheduled shifts
- Should Do – Important but flexible tasks like reading or prepping a bag
- Could Do – Optional tasks that can make things easier for you
This ranking system keeps you focused on what matters today while exercising your time management skill by being aware of what’s coming next.
3. Think of What Makes You Happy
When working and go to school at the same time, it can be easy to lose sight on what makes you happy.
Sure, your time management skills may be on point now that you can see your school schedule and work schedule…BUT!
If you don’t account for the things that help you get through your educational journey, you may be quick to experience burn out.
So, don’t forget to put on the schedule the fun activities you can participate in.
It could be:
- Playing video games online with friends
- Joining a dance lesson
- Volunteering at an animal shelter
It’s important to be well-rounded and not just focus on the serious aspects of school and work.
What also goes along with this is the next part.
4. Schedule Time to Rest
We know burnout is a real risk when you’re balancing two major responsibilities.
When you’re always on the go, even it it’s a fun adventurous kind of day, it can be exhausting.
To always be on the go and never really having enough time to slow down, it makes you realize that being able to rest is a luxury.
However, rest isn’t just a luxury. It’s part of an effective time management system.
You need to make sure on your planner there is room for sleep (at least 7 hours) and mini-breaks that allows you to slow down and reset.
You’ll get more done when your brain and body are recharged.
5. Use Your Micro-moments
As a working student, you understand that long stretches of free time are rare.
After you filled your planner with your times and tasks for school, work, hobbies, and rest, it’s time to consider something that is always unexpected… a micro-moment.
Micro-moments are those moments where you have free time between doing something.
Sometimes they’re random. Sometimes they’re just there.
In those moments where you have nothing to do, you can use the moments to help yourself by doing the following:
- 10 minutes to review flash cards
- 10 minutes to read a few pages
- 5 minutes to reply to emails or messages from class discussion
- 20 minutes to draft an outline for your paper
You may not know how long your micro-moment can last, but doing a little bit to help yourself get ahead can help you tackle your tasks more efficiently.
6. Batch Work When You Can
Switching between tasks can drain you mentally.
Earlier, you ranked your school tasks. This part is for when you want to stay productive and just want to get as much of the “similar” assignments out of the way.
For example, you can batch your work by:
- Posting and answering all your school’s discussion assignment at once
- Completing reading assignments back-to-back
- Batch study sessions by subject
Batching work like this can reduce your mental load and help you maintain focus.
7. Communicate
Even when you have only online classes, you are bound to at least communicate with the people at work and the people at school.
Sure, you may be tasked with participating in a class discussion in class. The problem is, no matter how good your time management is…bad things can happen.
Sometimes life happens in a way that things can get IN the way of the commitments you had.
Part of your success depends on the people around you understanding your commitments.
So, make sure to be proactive in communicating with the people around you.
Let your employer know your school schedule if you have a feeling they may be asking you to do more at work or if you think you’ll be a little cranky.
Email your professors early if you anticipate conflicts with your work hours or if something else happens.
Balancing work and studying isn’t easy, but it is possible with the right kind of strategies. Don’t beat yourself up if your time management skills isn’t perfect off the first time you brainstorm through this.
In practicing being organized, setting clear priorities, and protecting your time, you can manage your responsibilities without losing yourself to the point of burning out.
As a person with a full-time job, a part-time job and is also a full-time college student, these tips helped make sure I wouldn’t stay rocking in a corner and just being burned by responsibility.
Remember, you got this!
