A college degree is an important milestone for most people.
A degree gives you an opportunity to earn more money. Plus, more opportunities for career growth.
But what if you can only pursue a college degree while working full-time or part-time?
That can be quite a challenge.
Especially when you are responsible for your own tuition fees and personal bills.
That’s probably why dropping either is not an option.
So, how do you balance college and working full-time or part-time without losing your mind?
Millions have done it, and more are still doing it.
A National Center for Education Statistics report shows that 74% of part-time and 40% of full-time college students are employed.
You’re not alone!
On the other hand, contrary findings by the American Education Research Association show that many find balancing college and work extremely challenging and are less likely to graduate.
This means that achieving college success for working adults requires more than just willingness, commitment, and persistence.
It demands proper time management skills, collaboration, and, most importantly, strategic planning and strict prioritization.
In this working student’s guide to college success for working adults, we discuss some of the best strategies to help you ace college classes while working full-time or part-time.
This article highlights the top productivity hacks for working students, time management tips, and self-care routines to enable you to handle your course and workload efficiently.
How To Succeed In College While Working full-time or part-time
The following strategies are necessary if you want to succeed in college while still keeping a job.
Strategic Planning
Strategic planning is key to nearly all successes, from personal to academic and professional excellence. It is among the top, most effective college and career balance tips.
Whether planning to enroll or already pursuing a college degree while working full-time, strategic planning will help set clear academic goals and formulate an actionable study plan that is in line with your working schedule.
Strategic planning involves evaluating all your commitments and job responsibilities to schedule your work effectively.
This will give you a good idea of how much time you have for your studies and maybe help you to create more time for coursework.
With a clear work schedule, you can easily formulate a study plan based on the available time. That way, your studies will not interfere with your work, and vice versa.
In addition, strategic planning for academic success for working students involves having a system that tracks all the important dates and deadlines.
You can use a Google calendar to set up reminders for important assignment deadlines.
This will help you to prioritize efficiently and focus your energy and study time on what is most essential at a particular moment.
While creating a study plan, ensure it is specific and realistic. That is, you should set specific, measurable, and, most importantly, attainable goals.
Unrealistic goal: complete all assignments by the end of the month.
Realistic goal: Complete urgent assignment by Saturday at 3 PM.
Additionally, be sure to define your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to handling coursework and plan accordingly.
For example, if you are a night owl, use that to your advantage to complete deadlines at night time. If you are a morning person, also take advantage of early morning time to get ahead of your goals.
Time management
Time management is a skill you must possess to ace your college classes while working full-time.
Time management refers to being mindful of your time. It is consciously knowing how you spend your time and making deliberate choices about using it more effectively.
Notably, working full-time means you have limited time for classwork. And so, managing the little time you have effectively is paramount.
Here are time management tips for students with jobs that will enable you to manage your time effectively as a working college student.
1. Time audit
A time audit is the basis of good time management. It is the basic assessment of where and how you spend your time.
Time audit enables you to separate the nonessentials from the essentials. It allows you to gain awareness of how you spend your time, helping you to make informed adjustments to improve efficiency.
For example, if you don’t have time to study, you can squeeze in a study session if you use the train to work. You can also catch up on assignments on days when things are slow at work.
2. Set your priorities
Good time management is all about having your priorities right. It is about prioritizing what is most important over everything else.
When setting your priorities, you may want to use methods like Eisenhower Matrix to distinguish between what is:
- Important and urgent,
- Important but not urgent,
- Urgent but not important, and
- Not important and not urgent
With this kind of prioritization, you can allocate your energy and time to what is most important and urgent first, delegate or defer the not urgent important to later, and delete the rest.
The key here is to focus on what’s most relevant to your goal.
3. Set Time Limits
Time limits are essential in ensuring you are ultimately productive.
Note that just because you have spent a long time on a particular project doesn’t mean you are productive or have spent the time wisely.
While the goal is to be as efficient as possible, you must strive to ensure that every second you have for schoolwork counts.
Time limits promote focus as they create a sense of urgency. They also help avoid procrastination, force you to focus on essential details only, and avoid low-level, mostly unnecessary specifics.
Additionally, time limits help you track your progress efficiently, enabling you to adjust your study plan accordingly.
Also, working with time frames allows you to better understand how long it takes to complete various tasks. This makes it easier to anticipate what you can achieve within a specific timeframe and plan wisely for future projects.
4. Use Technology Wisely
Technology can be a powerful ally in managing your time when used wisely. You can use technology to minimize distractions as well as maximize your productivity.
Apps such as Stayfocusd and Freedom help minimize doom scrolling on the internet.
Scheduling tools, on the other hand, help you plan your days effectively. They enable you to manage your work and course loads, track important dates, and monitor your progress.
Generally, there is a tool for nearly everything, from writing assistance to note-taking and learning assistance, that you can leverage to manage your time and achieve more within the available study time.
Note: When it comes to managing your time as a working student, you should not focus only on free time or study time. You should also be mindful of your working hours, as practicing good time management at work is also a better way to carve out extra study time.
Collaboration
It is certainly not easy to work alone. Managing your workload and college classes can be overwhelming.
And as helpful as all other full-time work and college tips and strategies may be, they can never take away all the pressure in juggling work, school, and social life.
You need to work with your peers, employer, professor, teaching assistant, and others to balance your efficacy.
Start by communicating with your employer and professors. Let them know about your dual responsibilities and discuss any accommodations they might offer. More often than not, they will want to help you where they can.
While the employers may provide flexible work hours, your professors might grant extensions or alternative deadlines, enabling you to ace both the workload and coursework.
Collaborating with your peers at work is almost equally important as communicating with your managers.
Collaborating with your workmates will help you manage your work more efficiently, allowing you to squeeze some study time into your work schedule. What’s more, your colleagues may also offer learning assistance when needed.
Connecting with your college peers could also mean a world of difference in your pursuit of a college degree. Your college mates can be a significant source of assistance.
They can offer nearly all kinds of assistance, from assignment help to notes and insights.
Besides, active engagement with your peers and positive student-faculty interactions are among the top academic success strategies.
Be Kind to Yourself
Balancing college and work won’t be easy, no matter how hard you try.
There will be times when you are crushing your to-do list like a champ. But there are days when you will fail to accomplish some of your goals. But that’s okay.
It is not always that things will go your way. In such a case, all you need is to evaluate your strategies and adjust accordingly.
Also, celebrating your wins can play a significant role in your college success. Whether big or small, a win is a win, and you should acknowledge it – reward yourself for doing well on a test, completing a project, or finishing a milestone on time.
Celebrating those accomplishments will re-energize and motivate you as you work toward the primary goal.
Schedule Self-Care Routine
You also need your health as much as you need that job and the degree.
Note that your success, whether in class or at work, is purely dependent on your physical and mental well-being. That’s why having a working self-care routine is paramount.
When formulating your work and study plan, be sure to schedule time for physical exercise, rest, and enough sleep. Note that you cannot absorb your course materials if you are physically or mentally stressed.
You may also want to include mindfulness techniques, such as meditation and deep breathing exercises, to reduce stress, relax your mind, and enhance your focus.
Also, remember that your eating habits and the general lifestyle influence your mental health significantly.
So try eating balanced meals, avoid too much caffeine and sugar, and drink sufficient water to stay hydrated.
Still, remember that, though a certain level may be crucial, social interactions also matter as much as school and work.
As such, when pursuing your college degree, also be sure to cultivate social connectedness.
Note that active student-student, student-faculty, and student-loved ones engagement has significant effects on mental health. They improve your cognitive abilities and memory, which are essential for academic success.
Take Advantage of Available Educational Resources and Support Services
Successfully completing your college classes while working also requires utilizing all available educational and support resources.
Seek out academic resources and support services offered by your school. Open Educational Resources, communities, and study groups can also be great sources of academic support.
Also, remember to apply for grants and scholarships that can help you reduce your tuition costs. There is no shame in seeking help.
Seek out every support you can get. Whether it is from your employer, tutors, or homework help services such as homework owl, the support you get can bring forth the success you seek.
Key Takeaways
- It is possible to work full-time while learning full-time.
- Statistics show that a sizeable number of college students – part-time (74%) and full-time (40%)- are employed.
- College success for working adults demands more than just willingness and grit.
- Acing college classes while working full-time also demands strategic planning and a high level of time management skills.
FAQs about being a working student
Q1: Is it possible to work full-time and be in school full-time?
Yes, you can pursue a full-time college program while still working full-time. Note, however, that you need a working plan to be productive at work and successful in school.
Q2: How do I study while having a full-time job?
Start every day/week/month with a working study plan. Also, managing your time effectively and maximizing every available downtime will give you enough studying opportunities.
You may also consider delegating some of the not-so-important coursework and assignments to tutoring and assignment help service platforms such as Homework Owl.
Q3: What should I do if my work schedule conflicts with classes?
Communication is the key here. Maintaining open communication with your professor and employers can help you find solutions and minimize potential conflicts.
The employer may provide a flexible working schedule when you communicate your educational commitments in advance.
Q4: How can I stay motivated to study after a long workday?
Start every semester with a clear goal, schedule and manage your time effectively, prioritize what is essential only, and most importantly, never forget why you started.
Conclusion
Your academic degree is equally important as your work, meaning that dropping either can significantly impact your life. While dropping out of college may influence your future success, quitting your job can affect your current and future living. Still, balancing college and work, especially a full-time job, is quite a challenge.
It is, however, possible. You only need good time management skills, a working study plan, and a proper self-care routine to succeed. Add grit to that and a little external support from a homework service provider such as Homework Owl, and you will achieve success easily.
At Homework Owl, we provide expert homework help services for any subject. We are dedicated to ensuring that you achieve academic success without having to deal with a never-ending pile of homework. Contact us now to get expert answers to your homework.