What is School-Life Balance? 7 Best Tips to Help You Achieve It
In recent years, work-life balance has become an important consideration for many employers and employees alike. You’ve probably heard it being talked about in the media or even by your parents at home. More and more businesses are now realizing that ensuring their employees strike a balance between their professional and personal lives is an important aspect of a progressive work environment. But those in the workforce are not the only ones who experience the struggles of maintaining a healthy state of mind inside and outside the workplace.
As a student, you often deal with competing responsibilities from all aspects of your life. In many instances, you find yourself battling the stress and anxiety that come with meeting academic demands and personal and social obligations at the same time. The pressure is even greater for those who are also holding down jobs while they are in school. And because students have been programmed to think that these are normal struggles, most don’t even realize that they’re already jeopardizing their mental health and overall well-being.
Much like how work-life balance is crucial in maintaining productivity and career success, school-life balance (or the lack of it) can make or break your academic performance. But how do you find the middle ground? Below, we listed effective ways to help you achieve a healthier school-life balance and build positive habits for school and beyond.
Why is School-Life Balance Important?
Pulling one all-nighter after another, finding time to fit in all activities and events, and cramming for exams or project deadlines are all standard fare for students. High school and college curriculums can be so demanding that they can easily consume your whole life. But while achieving academic success was never meant to be easy, working too hard to maintain those straight As can sometimes cause more harm than good.
It’s not uncommon for some students to lose motivation and experience burnout—especially when they have no other means of coping with stress or when other aspects of their lives begin to fall apart. When your stress levels and burnt-out feeling go unchecked, it can lead to problems with your physical and mental health.
According to Mind, a UK-based charity that advocates for mental health support for students, young people are more susceptible to mental health issues. Many individuals report experiencing problems with their mental health for the first time when they were at university. This is largely because of the stress associated with studying, their young age, and the lack of a good support network (either from being away from family or having no access to a school-funded program).
A poor school-life balance can also negatively impact your relationships. If you’re in high school or college, there’s a good chance your social life is at its peak. You often take on several roles at the same time—student, friend, classmate, partner, employee—which can lead to spreading yourself too thinly and cause other relationships to suffer. Particularly, when a big chunk of your time is reserved for academics. This can lead to feelings of isolation and minimize your sense of support.
Despite focusing most of your time and effort on your studies, the impact of inadequate school-life balance on your mental health and personal relationships can ultimately lead to poor academic performance.
How to Achieve School-Life Balance
Unlike employers who can implement a four-day work week to give employees more personal time, schools can’t impose a limit on the number of hours students should spend studying because of varying schedules and activities (especially if you are in college). Younger students are also less adept at identifying and managing their stress levels, and thus, less likely to develop healthy coping mechanisms.
That said, there are still plenty of effective techniques that can help improve your school life. But first, you need to ask what balance looks and feels like for you. A common answer would be having more time to pursue other interests and spend with family and friends. Or it can be the opposite, and you’d like to be able to dedicate enough time to your schoolwork instead of fulfilling other personal, work, and social obligations.
It’s important to understand that school-life balance can mean different things for everyone. It’s also not always as simple as being able to spend the same amount of time on everything you want to do. Often, you can say you’ve attained school-life balance when you feel satisfied with the time, energy, and effort you devote to each activity or aspect of your life. Below are some strategies that can help you achieve this.
1. Set reasonable goals.
Whether you’re writing down short- or long-term goals, it’s important to always ground them on what’s real and achievable. We’re all for pushing and challenging yourself, but you’ll be setting yourself up for failure if you reach for the stars without a clear plan on how you’re going to get there. If drawing up plans for the long haul is something that overwhelms you, give yourself time to boost your motivation and confidence by setting smaller goals that bring you closer to your long-term objectives.
2. And reward yourself when you reach them.
So you’ve read the first two chapters covered in your Chemistry exam right on schedule? Give yourself a breather and watch the latest upload of your favorite Youtuber. While the satisfaction of knowing you’ve ticked off an item in your to-do list is in itself a reward, a tangible treat can add to your sense of accomplishment. Giving yourself something to look forward to is even more helpful especially when you struggle to find the motivation to do unpleasant tasks.
3. Manage your time.
Plenty of stress-related concerns can be solved by effective time management, but as we all know, getting better at managing your time is easier said than done. In reality, students are bombarded with distractions. Lots of things can easily pull your attention away from what you should be doing. But if you’re serious about taking control of your time, it’s important to create a schedule. But not just any schedule—it has to be one you know you can stick to. This involves making a list of your priorities, ranking them from highest to lowest, and planning your day or week accordingly. Create a to-do list, with the highest priority tasks at the top, and work your way down. If your most important tasks take a lot of time to complete, break them down into more manageable chunks and use the Pomodoro Method to prevent burnout when working on a big task. If you have a hard time staying on track, visualizing your to-do list can help. Write them down on post-it notes or pin them on your cork bulletin board.
4. Take advantage of online options.
Juggling several activities can be a nightmare to plan, especially when you barely have enough time between them to go from point A to point B. Fortunately, the past couple of years has taught us that almost anything we do in person can also be done just as well online. Whether it’s classes, trainings, group study sessions, or meetings, always check if there are online alternatives you can attend instead. This will allow you more flexibility in your schedule by taking out your location and commute time from your list of worries.
5. Make time for downtime.
Self-care isn’t just a social media buzzword for wellness influencers—it’s an important component of your school-life balance. It can mean different things—an hour-long nap, a 15-minute break to enjoy a latte, an afternoon walk, playtime with your furry friend, writing in your journal, or a warm bath—but the idea is the same: taking time away from work to do something you enjoy.
Practicing self-care ensures that you don’t push yourself to the point of mental or physical exhaustion and that you work and study within healthy boundaries. While we always see people bragging about or being praised for their ability to multitask, recent studies have pointed out that it can actually decrease one’s quality of work and cause a decline in cognitive functioning. On the other hand, allowing yourself to “unplug” from technology and indulge in some “me-time” by practicing mindfulness can boost your productivity.
6. Strive to do your best—not for perfection.
You often see images of perfection blasted constantly on your screens so much so that it becomes the norm. And if you fail to fit that norm, it can only mean you’re not doing enough. Perfectionism results in self-defeating and negative thoughts. Often, your idea of perfection is neither possible nor realistic—especially when it’s based on unrealistic standards of excellence and other people’s highlight reels and carefully crafted images.
Instead, strive to do your best. You can do this without being a perfectionist by making a point to set realistic goals, enjoying the learning process as much as the outcome, using failures and mistakes as opportunities for learning and growth, and being open to constructive criticism.
7. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Being an independent learner is one of the top qualities of a successful student, but that doesn’t mean you must do everything by yourself—even when you can barely keep your head above water. As a student, having a great support system is crucial to your academic and personal success. This can come in the form of friends and family, whom you can turn to for mental or emotional support.
School-wise, working with a private tutor can help lessen the stress and anxiety you encounter with your rigorous curriculums, especially in subjects like math and science. However, the benefits of private tutoring go beyond helping you stay on top of your lessons. The right tutor can also help you build positive study habits and organization skills that allow you to make efficient use of your time and achieve better school-life balance.
How Stemly Tutoring Can Help
Aside from ensuring you achieve your academic goals, one of our top priorities at Stemly Tutoring is to inspire and help students lead rich, fun, and productive lives inside and outside the classroom. We understand the importance of school-life balance and the crucial role it plays in your learning journey. That is why we designed our online math and science tutoring services to provide comprehensive, individualized, and flexible support for students of all ages: To ensure that we help free you of the stress and worry of not being able to keep up with your schoolwork.
Our friendly, highly trained, and professional math and science tutoring experts are experienced in teaching students of all ages and skill levels and have extensive knowledge of local math and science curriculums. They can teach foundational and advanced concepts in a fun, engaging, and accessible way. All lessons are conducted online, so you don’t have to worry about conflicting schedules or canceling activities.
Stemly’s math and science tutors provide Pre-Algebra tutoring, Algebra 1 tutoring, Algebra 2 tutoring, Geometry tutoring, Trigonometry tutoring, Pre-Calculus tutoring, Calculus 1 tutoring, Calculus 2 tutoring, Multivariable Calculus tutoring, Statistics tutoring, General Physics tutoring, Mechanics tutoring, Electricity & Magnetism tutoring, General Chemistry tutoring, Organic Chemistry tutoring, General Biology tutoring, and Biochemistry tutoring. We also offer AP math and science tutoring, including AP Calculus AB tutoring, AP Calculus BC tutoring, AP Physics 1 tutoring, AP Physics 2 tutoring, AP Physics C tutoring, AP Chemistry, and AP Biology tutoring.
Reach out to Stemly Tutoring today to find out more about how we can help!