Balance between Work and Education

It is not enough that I have to help him play kids’ games because he can not read the instructions. I must have dinner ready before my wife comes home at 9:00 PM. After taking dinner and cleaning the kitchen, I get a chance to check the letters and bills in the Mailbox and clean the entire house every other night. Weekends are a little bit different than weekdays. My weekend responsibilities include; groceries shopping for the week, laundries, taking my son to one of the fun places nearby and cleaning the house inside and out. On the top of all those responsibilities, I volunteer as an IT support for OHRC, a non-profit organization. I get email requests to add new users, design flyers, create a database and update their website and with new information. Despite all those responsibilities, I decided to enroll in Penn Foster College to get an Associate degree in PC Mentaininence Technology with a hope of enhancing my knowledge and career to the next level. To complete the semester, I must log into the portal and work on the course at least once a day. I sit for studies after dinner but cannot stay later than 11:30 PM as I am exhausted due the activities at work and

Over the course of my undergraduate career, I have been faced with the challenge of balancing school work around extracurricular activities and hobbies, volunteering, social time, and obligations to my job. The stress became further exacerbated when I became interested in the field of medicine, pushing myself to improve my academics and create a better balance within my life. In order to accomplish my goals, without becoming overwhelmed by the challenges I faced, I began focusing on the tasks directly at hand, rather than the entire picture. Narrowing my focus to smaller increments of time, rather than an entire semester, allowed me to stick to strict routines, while feeling less overwhelmed. In addition, I began to more efficiently manage

As a busy mother, partner, worker etc. I find it hard to allocate appropriate time especially for studying.

Where a regular student can afford to block off time days or weeks in advance for study or extracurricular activity I have found that flexibility is my strongest tool. There have been nights I have found myself studying for an impending test while pacing my kitchen with a crying baby in one arm and a text book in the other. Any reading assignment I can manage to listen to through audiobook is absolutely a God send, as I can complete it in the car or while packing lunches. I work two jobs on top of everything else. This semester has been my favorite in terms of schedule synchronicity. Everything is flowing in an orderly manner, I go straight from school to work taking time to study during my breaks.

Hi Octavia. I also stated some of the same challenges you stated. It’s hard finding a balance between work, family, and studying. You want to be able to interact with your family once you leave work, but your focus should be on reading the next chapter. With me I can get side tracked easily. I’ll end up helping my little girl with her work and then she’ll want to go out for dinner or to play. Once I start to interact with her I lose track of everything. When everything is over, I have to go to bed for work. It’s hard but you have to have self-control. I must say in the past when I was taking online classes I had a great support team. My boyfriend was very understanding and supportive. Someone from my class was always available. It was a great

The initial shock of the significant workload and expectations can take their toll, but good time management skills can prevent multiple late nights in a row to get assignments done on time. Kelci Lynn Lucier has worked in higher education for ten years, and has experienced students struggle to try and find the balance between extracurricular activities, personal activities, and education priorities. Luckily, Lucier has four tips to help best use the time provided in a day. Lucier’s first step focuses on managing ones academic time and how it needs to be the top priority above all other curricular activities, stating: “It's important to remind yourself why you're in college in the first place: to graduate” (Lucier). Lucier’s second step is be able to manage personal time, she talks about how unrealistic it is to always be working, studying, or learning, she wants students to try and find time to do something fun with friends or a club. Lucier’s third step is to wkeep the students health in mind, it does no good to stay up until two in the morning studying over a history mid-term, only to be half asleep for the test anyway; sleep is important and without can only increase the stress. Lucier’s fourth and final step is to not be afraid to seek help with your time management, she states: “The most important thing to have for time

First, our family's dynamics. Right, wrong, or indifferent, our family has dynamics that may not be in play in your "typical" student's family. I say this as a precursor to this... I believe your priorities and ours may not always match, but hopefully the success of Emma, the child of topic, does match. First of all, my husband and I both work advanced careers. Many days I leave as early as 6am and get home as late as 6pm, and some days, I work until 9pm or later. Jeremy and I switch off working late many times as well. I have two children with special needs and have hundreds of appointments each year to attend, which also means at times, I work in

The United States is a country where just about every one has chance to attend college. Unfirtantly not every one of those individuals has the oppurtinity to finish college. In

Being a stay at home mother I have to be strict when it comes to my family, fun and school. I take school very seriously and it’s a very important part of my life. When things may seem to get stressful I will remind myself that no matter what it’s all going to pay off in the end, it’s all going to be well worth the time I’ve spend focusing on my

My life has been a test since I turned into an online student. Every day I am currently battling to adjust coming home from being at work all night, my life and my school work are hard to balance. Just to let you know what I do at work my positions on my job is housekeeping supervisor and I work at Parkland Hospital Tuesday through Sunday, and I leave home going to work at 8:30 pm it takes me 35 minutes to get there so I won't be late. When I get there, I start getting thing ready for my employee’s. So, I must start printing material that everybody needs so when they come we will be ready to start our meeting with the staff and begin working. We prepare rooms for the patient to be checked- in the hospital. With every one of these obligations, my work night is full, and I regularly don't have time to take a break before it is 7:30 am and start my drive home.

Another area of importance is to make sure to leave work on time. This will avoid eating up your hours that could be applied to coursework or time with family. Leaving work on time will also help keep you from stressing out too much. I, unfortunately, don’t get the opportunity much to leave work on time. I always have to make sure patients have been discharged, all veterinarians are finished with their clients, and every boarding animal is back safely in their cage. I try to make up for the loss time by spending a few extra hours studying before bed, or spending more quality time with my husband. Family is another part of prioritizing. Never let your schoolwork consume your time with family. Make sure to keep them informed and up to date on when you will be focusing on your schoolwork. Your family should always be there to support you, and they should always understand your need to succeed. They will be your rock and give you the positive push to keep on learning. You should give them a copy of your calendar and even see if there are areas where they might be able to help you with studies. I would recommend that you delegate tasks and write them in your calendar as well. Set days of the week, where you’ll do the cooking and cleaning, and rotate the following week with your

I completely understand how juggling family, a demanding job, and our new school commitment can be stressful at times. However, I believe a person can develop a routine or habit in just a few short weeks. I have made a conscious decision to make earning my degree a priority. Therefore I have had to make sacrifices in time for family and extracurricular activities. My family and friends know how important this journey is to me and they understand I won’t be as available as I used to be. I am falling into my routine, and I have not experienced stress yet. I feel confident I will succeed.

Having a job and being a student is not an easy task, you need to find the time to do both in a way that it doesn’t take over your life. Therefore, I compose time for myself by doing methods that I enjoy doing, like playing video games and taking a short nap after a long day of work before heading to school.

Working during college is a big decision for many people. Some people have the ability to take on a bigger task in trying to balance academic success and job experience. I can relate to this issue for much, because I want to succeed in school but I also want to begin building my resume and learning on-the-job experience. I want to become more knowledgeable through the classroom material, but everyone always tells me that the best way to learn is to just go out there and do it. That is the issue for me, trying to make time for both school and work. Personally I need a lot of time to prepare for tests and exams and sometimes it is a struggle for me. I need time to prepare for school, but I still want to go out and learn through the field experience.

Being able to balance my personal life and my college life is a challenge that I can foresee as being difficult to overcome because there are times the events my personal life are so overwhelming that it makes it difficult to stay focused and complete all that is expected of me. Sometimes things come up unexpectedly and there will be times when sacrifices have to be made in order to ensure my success. It's up to me to make sure I prevail even when the circumstances seem more than what can be handled.