Something I have been asked a fair few times is how I manage my time between working full-time, studying for my masters and finding time to relax and do other things. Some people have been surprised to hear that I don’t pre-plan my week in great detail by formulating an hour-by-hour schedule. Whether you feel like that is the right or wrong approach, I have never been much of an intense planner. However, I do like to think that I keep organised in other ways. All throughout my life- through deadlines, exams and work, I have tended to follow these 4 principles to ensure I still have a healthy work/study/life balance:

Little and Often

Try to do at least something most days, whether that’s one or two exercises or a couple of pages of reading, I don’t like to let things build up because that’s when I start to feel stressed and that things are out of control. I have never been one to do all-nighter’s or even study past 9pm to complete a piece of work, as it’s imperative for me to unwind in the evenings… and I value my sleep too much! Consistency is key, so studying for 1-2 hours a day after work accumulates into 5-10 hours already in your weekdays- and then this soon becomes a habit! Furthermore, the extra time many of us now have because of the extinction of the daily commute should make this concept easier to follow and maintain.

Know your Deadline’s Well in Advance

This is a key one – you need to ensure that you know what is happening in your life a few weeks in advance to plan and prepare accordingly. There may be a particular busy period at work, a coursework deadline, or even a big family event that will require you not to work for a few days. All of this needs to be accounted for so that you can make the right moves beforehand to ensure you continue to stay on top of your workload. For example, I had a large family event one weekend, and a large piece of coursework was due the next Monday morning. I factored this into my schedule, to make sure I had it drafted the week before with plenty of time to review and submit before the weekend. Even if something hits you from out the blue, the ‘little and often’ habit you follow should ensure that your workload pile isn’t sky-high and unmanageable.

Make Regular Time for Relaxation

I either set myself one day of the weekend or an evening after work where I do not do any studying. This is time that I can spend with friends, family or just watch some Netflix. Actively carving this time out into your schedule is so essential to ensure that you don’t burn out or have a break down. I have always tried to follow this principle- even during exam seasons in my undergrad, because I personally think that sparing some time to relax actually helps me to perform better. This correlates with my ‘little and often’ point- because I feel like I have things under control and my work is getting done.

Give your Tasks your Full Attention

With working from home now the norm, it can be really easy for the line between home-life and work-life to get blurred – let alone adding studying into the equation too. That is why it is so crucial to not let your mind keep darting around to 10 different things all the time. The book Deep Work by Cal Newport is really great in highlighting the difference in productivity between shallow work and more deep and focused work. You are likely to have a greater understanding and excel in a task that you give your undivided attention to. Therefore, I tend not to study even in my lunch breaks to avoid shallowly skimming over some reading which I probably wont digest properly, as my mind is still stuck between work tasks.