10 Tips to Better Combine Working and Studying
No matter how you look at it, an educated person is more likely to be employed rather than a person with little to no education. That’s why studying for an education is important.Also, a more educated person is more likely to be promoted than a rival for the same position with lesser education.
But to be educated these days, you mostly need money. From paying tuition, buying books, traveling, and other costs, you need money to study.
This is the reason why more and more people today are working while studying, even those barely out of their teenage years.
But working while studying is very hard. That’s why many either stop studying altogether in order to work, or stop working altogether in order to study.
Here are a few tips to help you cope with working and studying at the same time:
The information in this article is based off my real life observations of people actually working and studying at the same time.
Table of Contents:
1. Coordinate Your Schedule2. Inform Your Teachers and Employer About Your Situation
3. Treat Your Time Like Gold
4. Destress Yourself Routinely
5. Determine Your Priority
6. Be More Efficient
7. Create a Suitable Study Environment
8. Get Enough Sleep
9. Eat Healthy
10. Have Inspiring Goals
Final Words
The Details:
1. Coordinate Your Schedule
For many people who work and study, their usual concern is just to be able to find time for work and study. But combining the two doesn’t only mean being able to find time for both.
It also means being able to thrive during the peak periods of working and studying.
For example, if you are working in retail, December is usually the busiest period of your retail work. But its also usually one of the busiest periods in school, a time when teachers and professors are handling out projects and assignments for students to do on their holidays.
A good plan to implement in situations such as this is to ask either your employer or your teachers to hand you out their projects and assignments to you in advance, so you don’t have to struggle trying to cope between hectic work and study tasks at the same time.
Involving your teachers and employer in your work and study scheduling enables you to better handle the two. Most of the time, your teachers and employer would be sympathetic to you and would even give you a more flexible work or study load.
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2. Inform Your Teachers and Employer About Your Situation
As said, informing your teachers and employer about your situation is generally advantageous to you.
Most of the time, your teachers and employer would give you a more flexible schedule and might even be sympathetic to you if they see you struggling to combine work and study.
There might even be a good chance that your teachers and employer would bend over backwards trying to accommodate you.
So, right at the onset, even before you’ve gotten the job, when you’re being interviewed, state it out in the open that you’re also studying. Usually, your prospective employer would tell you if you will be able to combine your work and study while working for them.
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3. Treat Your Time Like Gold
Once you’re working and studying at the same time already, your time would become scarce to do anything else. That’s why you need to treat your time like gold and put it to good use only.
Just like gold, you should mine for time as much as you can. When I mean “mining for time”, I meant finding spare time in your everyday busy life that you can use productively.
For example, if you’re commuting, you can use the idle time you have while aboard public transport to study or do extra company work.
For example, you can study your school textbooks or do office paperwork while sitting on a public bus or train or some other transport.
There are actually attorneys who do paperwork for their clients while commuting, and they get to bill their clients for the amount of time they spent doing paperwork while commuting.
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4. Destress Yourself Routinely
Working and studying at the same time is very stressful. If you’re not careful, you’ll burn out fast.
That’s why it’s best to destress yourself every chance you get. For example, you can schedule leisure activities despite your busy schedule of both working and studying. Short leisure activities destress and restart the brain, renewing your vigor to go back working and studying.
You can also listen to music or any audio that relaxes you while you are working and/or studying. Music that relaxes you can make even the most difficult and boring parts of your work and/or studies passable.
Sometimes, pictures and statues of your loved ones and favorite possessions help take your mind off work and studies, basically relaxing you. But don’t let them become distractions, there is a fine line between objects becoming stress relievers versus becoming distractions.
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5. Determine Your Priority
Regretfully, there is no such thing as equal priorities when it comes to working and studying. You would always have to prioritize one from the other.
It’s either you have to prioritize your studies because with it, you would have a higher chance of educationally standing out from other people, thereby increasing your chances of earning more.
Or you could prioritize your work because it currently provides you financial security which may be more important to you than your future financial opportunities as a result of your additional education.
Of course, it is you yourself who would have to decide which of the two is more important to you. If you try to equally devote your time and resources to working and studying, you would surely fail at both at some point.
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6. Be More Efficient
You shouldn’t only become faster at working and studying, but you also need to become more efficient.
For example, you can develop your own form of shorthand so you don’t have to write complete words and sentences just to remember them. For example, instead of writing the word “the”, you can just write the letter “d”. This is easy enough for you and other people to understand.
You can also record the audio or video of your teacher’s lectures and record the images of what they’re typing in the blackboard, then while you’re working, you can play your recorded audio and/or video of your teacher’s lecture.
You can also automate the more repetitive parts of your job. For example, if your job is typing documents, you could make pre-formatted document forms that already contains some of the words that you type on a regular basis. This way, you don’t have to type them anymore.
The more efficient you become, the more time you free yourself from work and studies, enabling you to do other things with your extra time.
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7. Create a Suitable Study Environment
Usually, your work is routine. All you need to do to excel is to do your best at work everytime you have to do it. The company doesn’t usually mind even if you’re basically doing the same work day in, day out.
But studying is very different from work. This is because your teachers expect you to keep improving all the time. They expect you to be more knowledgeable the more you study.
This is why you need an environment conducive to learning, so you can keep improving with your studies.
For example, you should minimize your use or completely turn off your smartphone, to avoid distractions especially social media.
There are even people who sleep early and wake up very early in the morning to study, when it’s still very quiet and while most people are still sleeping.
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8. Get Enough Sleep
When still deciding to work while studying, make sure that if you do so, you’ll get enough sleep.
Many people decide to work and study at the same time believing that they can always sacrifice a little of their sleep time if needed.
But you cannot compromise your time. You need adequate sleep to continue functioning normally and to also not get sick. You simply cannot sacrifice your sleep time when deciding to work and study at the same time.
Admittedly, there are people who can still function well and not get sick despite less sleeping time. But if you’re not one of these people, don’t even think of working while studying, or you’ll surely perform poorly with both.
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9. Eat Healthy
When you’re busy working and studying, there is a huge temptation for you to skip meals, or if you do eat meals, to eat quickly prepared convenient foods like processed and junk foods.
But just like sleeping, you cannot also compromise eating regular meals, especially healthy meals.
Your body needs regular healthy meals in order for you to keep functioning normally and to not get sick.
To ensure that you have a constant supply of healthy meals, have a regular grocery shopping and cooking schedule. You don’t have to spend a lot of time grocery shopping and cooking healthy meals. All you need to be is to be efficient as always.
For example, a meal comprising of boiled meat and vegetables topped with spices and readymade sauces can be prepared in minutes. You can always finish off your meal with a store bought fresh fruit as a dessert.
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10. Have Inspiring Goals
Undeniably, working and studying will take its toll on you at some point along the way. When this comes, you might be easily tempted to just give up.
This is when having inspiring goals in your mind comes into play. Inspiring goals help you to continue soldiering on even at your lowest point while working and studying.
Your inspiring goals don’t have to be grandiose, it could be as simple as providing a better life for your family after you finish your studies.
Also, having a goal would let you determine just how much you need to work and study. Grandiose goals usually means you have to spend more time working and studying, while modest goals usually means that you don’t have to work and study so much.
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Final Words
Working and studying at the same time is not only hard, but it can be very stressful. That’s why you need a plan before you start working and studying at the same time. If you can, you should also inform and involve your teachers and employer. They can be a big aid to you in coping.
You shouldn’t also waste time when you’re already working and studying. Routine destressing, knowing your priorities, and being more efficient also helps you to cope.
Also, keeping healthy by sleeping enough and eating healthy helps you to function normally and prevents you from getting sick.
But most importantly, you need to have an inspiring goal as to why you are working and studying. Having inspiring goals enables you to ride out the low points of working and studying, enabling you to soldier on and keeps you from quitting.
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11 Sure Steps to Working Faster
Although almost everyone is mandated by their company to work a minimum of eight hours a day, it is still important to work as fast as you can, so you can have more time for yourself even if you’re in your company.
But besides having more time for yourself while in your company, you can also benefit from working faster.
For example, your company might take notice that you are able to finish your tasks fast, making your company consider you for promotions or further responsibilities.
But for those who are not restricted by a mandatory eight hour work schedule by their company, being able to work faster means that you can go home much sooner to spend more time with your family and loved ones.
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