So, you’ve decided to go back to school to further your career. Congratulations! Never an easy task, it becomes doubly hard when you work full-time. Not everyone can take their gap years off work to focus solely on study.
So, how do you account for the benefits of online education when you have so much to do all the time? It’s not easy but it certainly is possible. The key to living a happy, healthy, productive life is coming up with a schedule that gives you enough time to provide for yourself and your family as well as accomplish your educational goals at the same time.
Here is how you achieve balance between your personal, academic, and professional lives:
Practice Saying No
Learn to turn down invitations and requests for your time that don’t suit you. Don’t feel guilty when you have to say “no” to a relative or friend who asks something of you that you just cannot do. Explain to them that as much as you’d like to help out, you can’t give your current work and school schedules.
Take Self-Care Seriously
Make self-care a priority. You can’t expect to take care of others when you’re not taking good care of yourself. Schedule some downtime for your body and mind to recuperate. Make sure you don’t skip rest in favor of getting more done.
Make Time to Learn New Skills
Learning new skills continuously is a must. However, this doesn’t mean that you need to be gaining something huge and being certified for something. Learning new skills can look something like taking a language course, especially if you work for international firms. Learning anything takes time and patience.
But if you commit to learning something new, you can increase your opportunities for better job offers or find your new passion. There’s no wrong way to learn, so you can find a way that suits your style the most. It could be attending online workshops or conferences, taking live webinars or in-app video training on demand.
Eat Healthy
Eat nutritious food, drink plenty of water, and move your body because when you don’t feel well, you’re unable to get anything done. Take note of how certain foods and beverages make you feel. Eliminate fatty, sugary, and high-calorie, unhealthy foods from your diet and try to eat as much fresh fruits and vegetables as you possibly can. If you’re lacking certain vitamins and nutrients, make sure you take a supplement to make up for the absence of these items from your diet.
Delegate, Period.
Relinquish your need for control by delegating and outsourcing some tasks. It’s easy to get caught up in doing everything yourself. All that does is deplete your energy and cause you to perform poorly. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and to outsource tasks to other capable people.
Keep A List of Things to Do
Buy yourself a pretty planner and use it to keep a visual outlook on all the things you’re required to do in a day, week, and month. To get a better sense of just how busy you are, write everything down in a planner. This helps you identify areas of downtime so you can capitalize on these moments by planning a vacation, catching up on rest or tackling a project at home that you wouldn’t ordinarily have time for. Use colored pens, highlighters, stickers, and fancy paper clips to keep your obligations in order and present in your mind.
Now that you know how to achieve better work life balance, it’s time to start carving out blocks of your schedule just for you. Make the word “no” part of your vocabulary, keep self-care at the top of your list of priorities, and don’t lose sight of your dreams. The benefits of online education are enormous. It’s up to you to achieve everything you set out to do personally, academically, and professionally.
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