So, you’re planning to go back to school.
Whether that means pursuing an open-ended arts major or getting an advanced professional credential, one thing is for sure:
Your life is about to change.
Precisely how those changes unfold is up to you, to some extent. After all, you’re the captain of your own ship.
But that shouldn’t stop you from looking to those who’ve come before you for guidance and support as your voyage takes shape.
If you’re planning to maintain a full-time workload through your studies, you’ll need to take special care to balance what’s about to become a very full plate.
Here’s what you can do to keep everything straight while striking the right work-life balance and avoiding burnout.
How To Balance Full-Time Work And Post-Secondary Education Without Breaking Down
1. Enroll in a Flexible Degree or Certificate Program
For starters, enroll in a flexible degree or certificate program that’s convenient to where you live and work.
This arts and technology school offers a slew of programs for students working part- and full-time, for instance; if you’d prefer, look for programs that allow you to complete most or all of your coursework online.
You should control your study schedule, not the other way around.
2. Practice Effective Time Management
Balancing full-time work with your studies is a perfect opportunity to hone your time management skills.
The key here is to assign a role to every 15-minute block of your day; you don’t want to overschedule yourself, of course, but you also don’t want inordinate amounts of downtime that will inevitably come back to bite you later.
3. Curtail Your Social Calendar
Learn to say “no” to friends and colleagues, however difficult it may be.
Leave one night per week open for socialization; if it turns out that you can fit additional blocks of social time into your schedule, you can always adjust later.
4. Lean on Friends and Family for Practical Support
They’re there for you, after all, even if you don’t have as much time as you’d like to hang out.
If you need the dog walked, the laundry done, the groceries purchased — well, there’s probably someone willing to do it for you.
5. Don’t Be Afraid to Take a Personal Day
When things become overwhelming, don’t double down. Instead, take a breath and slow down.
There’s no shame in taking a personal day to rest and recharge.
You’ll come back stronger, ready to take on the next challenge.
6. Don’t Take on More Than You Can Handle
At the end of the day, finding the proper work-life balance is an intensely personal process.
A workload that might feel overwhelming for one person might seem manageable, even boring, for the next. After all, “life” means different things to different people, as does “work.”
Does that mean you should aim low, or put off your plans to pursue a new certificate or degree altogether?
Of course not. What it does mean is that you should be careful to control the precise amount of extra responsibility that you choose to take on.
After all, you can’t very well excel in your studies when you have no time for them, nor when the demands on your time are such that you have no capacity to focus on the tasks at hand.