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How to Balance Between Your Social and School Life as a Student

There is a difference between being educated and being learned. You are wondering, how? The main objective of going to school is to learn- formal education from the curriculum. At the end of your stay in school, you need to be educated- social, emotional, and physical life improvement. It explains why lawyers call themselves “learned fellows.”

 As you go to school, you need to have a wholesome approach towards issues. There should be a difference in your argument in a round social table between you and someone who has not stepped into a formal school setup.

 As much as you have gone to get the degree or diploma or doctorate or master’s degree, you need to have a proper social life and not come out as a social misfit.

 The situation worsens when you also have work and family duties to fulfill. Not that it’s impossible; it’s very possible, you have to ensure you make good use of your time.

These are some of the best ways to balance social life and school life

Follow your schedule

You have your school timetable and the social activities within the school program. You have to choose what is of importance. You can’t attend all functions. Decide on the social events to attend. In case they take your time off class, you have to sacrifice on other unnecessary activities to compensate for the time.

Schedule a “me” time

You can’t be busy all the time. Set time where you meditate and evaluate your whole school and social life. It is time to scrap off unwanted friends and activities that take your time off school work.

 You notice you haven’t read for the upcoming exams simply because of the company you keep.

Never procrastinate

“Procrastination is the thief of time,” you have probably heard of this English proverb before. It’s relevant to a student’s life. Why postpone the activity yet, you will still do it? You will do it in a hurry and get low marks just because you are rushing against time.

Set priorities

Not all the instances you are in class. There are breaks between classes. What do you do at this time? You can’t go out for lunch with friends and take hours when you know there is a class in two hours.

 Why not use this time to engage in a group discussion? In this activity, you achieve two objectives; you learn the subject matter and still make friends whom you will later hang around.

 Set a day on the weekend for your activities- family time, socialize with friends, and go for a religious function or attend to your hobbies.

Have a good sleep

A night of good sleep is vital to reduce stress levels. You need to have a definite sleep time and wake up time. Whatever works for you? It’s vital to reduce stress and enhance your productivity throughout the day.

 The secret to achieving the social and school life balance is simple. Engage in activities that add value to your life, but let your primary focus be educative programs.

Student: Work Hard or Work Smart?

Staying in the library for long hours doesn’t necessarily translate to good grades. What matters is the productive time you spend there. You would rather spend a few hours and be sure of what you have done.

The many long hours have breaks for social media catch-up, moving around trying to get the right books and opening the books on what is relevant for that day. You can only substantiate a few productive hours.

The extended reading hours shows you are working hard, while a short time with high productivity is an example of working smart.

You have many assignments and units to complete. You also have your notes to read for the upcoming exams.

Do you want to achieve all these in a day? Not possible. Instead, you need to sit and focus on one task at a time and do it to your perfection. Once done, go out and play baseball, take a shower, eat your dinner, relax a bit and rejuvenate for the next reading session.

Parameters for working smart

  • Involves intellectual strength
  • Uses less time
  • Focuses on one task at a time
  • Engages targeted reading and study approach
  • Less physically intensive
  • It’s qualitative

Parameters of working hard

  • Too much to do within a short time
  • Spend more time reading, revising and researching
  • Studies everything with nothing in the end
  • It’s quantitative
  • Physically intensive with minimal cognitive thinking

As a student, you must strive to work smart. How do you do this?

Focus on one task: You are up late in the night to study. You need to have an objective, once you achieve it, get up from the reading chair and sleep straight away. Before that, you are still up even if you have to go to the wee hours of the morning. Never multitask.

Stop procrastinating: You have an assignment by your lecturer. Let the deadline not be your decisive factor on when to start, Put it on your to-do list and set a date on when you want it done, whether you are in the right mindset or not. Do it to its completion.

Have measurable results: At the end of every session, you must have tangible evidence of what you have achieved. If not, evaluate the reason for not being able to make it. The self-monitoring and evaluation tool sharpens your mind to do better next time.

It is an excellent way to set an achievable target for you to know you are accountable for every time to take to read or research.