Balancing life and ensure you’re arranging the right priorities is a big deal, but what if you’re working full time and studying at the same time? Pass the process, good grades, and get your job done with fantastic results, is it all possible?
How can we ensure both mental and physical health, not on edge? That is the kind of question I’ve never stop asking myself a few years back. Recently graduated and succeed in my top-up degree, I know that many people thrive with studying while working full time.
Cain Polidano and Rezida Zakirova 2011 published research from Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research called “Outcomes from combining work and tertiary study” findings that combining study and work does have significant effects on completion and future employment prospects. Which further explains that student who works either full time or part-time will get a backlash on their study, whether they fail on the completion or not due to their working qualification.
I traits the findings above and my experience. I agree that the workload will affect our effort in studying. And it is why I objected that people keep aligning cleverness with the ability to complete study while working. I think it takes courage and determination to finish what we started when we signed ourselves to work-study life. We should consider how much we want to invest our time and dedication on this.
While I finished my bachelor’s, I’m not only taking a single job but also solemnly signing my self to what I called “a no weekend club”. After a semester of undergoing a top-up degree, I was hired as an Assistant Lecture by my previous alma mater; Universitas Indonesia, and it becomes my second job until this day. I consider this as a very slashing act until now, but believe it or not. I think it’s even helped me a lot to prioritize what I want to do within both personal and professional life.
Here are things you can keep in mind to juggle between work and study;
1. Set goal(s)
It sounds cliche, but it is really important that we know what we want and how this study or work thing would help us to achieve it.
2. Keep in the loop with a friend or clique with the same condition
This is another simple but very important factor for succeeding in studying while working. Your friend(s) somehow will be your social overseer, I consider my self might won’t able to cope with studying if it’s not because of my classmates. We constantly share and teach each other when the quiz or examination is near the schedule. Moreover, social support will definitely help when the condition gets rough.
3. Measure your activity load
When everything required you to be 100% on it, it’s compulsory to be able to examine your self. We need to be acceptable that we’re not gonna nailed it perfectly every time. Be rational enough to justify whether your work doesn’t affect badly your learning dedication, a lot of us are failed to complete because this stuff isn’t considered for them.
4. Be transparent with your surrounding
Just because everyone’s hanging out after work or every weekend, doesn’t mean you can’t have it all anymore. Keep your self positive and entertaining while juggling work and studying are important, but your surroundings need to know what you’re dealing with. This stuff will help you to be mentally stable and not feeling left out.
5. Set some alarms and deadline
Your task has a deadline, just because it doesn’t pay doesn’t mean you play around with it. You still need to put a good degree after all. To help my self stay organize and puctual I set some alarms and deadline, this might really helpful especially for those who are in an online learning process.
Five things above are a nonscientific recommendation I put together after earned my top-up degree. So, for those of you who currently juggling the same condition, you can do it!
