Tips for managing your time with work and college

If you are a college student who still wants to make time for work, this guide can help.

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The course selection portal opens at midnight on the dot, and you’re sure you have enough coffee, energy drinks, and enthusiasm to get the job done.

When the page loads, you find yourself engaged in a frantic scramble to add all the classes you need to qualify as a full-time student. The clock ticks, the portal crashes, and your caffeine-fueled heart is beating out of your chest as you smash the refresh button again and again.

The page finally loads, and you stare in horror at the message on the screen: section full.

There’s no way to balance work and college with such a ridiculous weekly class schedule. Can your boss schedule you around your classes? Should you just drop out and become a rodeo clown?

Put the red nose away and take a deep breath. The keys to balancing work and school are forethought, habits, routines, and communication. Once you’ve mastered these skills, you can start choosing a degree and financing for college without skipping a beat.

Read on to discover how successful students master the work-class balance.

Forethought: Schedule Your Success

The first skill you need to master to make balancing work and school a reality is forethought.

First, know that nearly every school assigns students an academic advisor upon matriculation. This will usually be an experienced faculty member who can provide guidance on your chosen course of study. Reach out to your advisor to schedule a meeting about the best way to sequence your classes, when you might need to find an internship, and what electives will serve you best.

When course selection time comes around, prepare by making a few mock schedules. Make a list of all the classes you could potentially take that satisfy requirements and don’t interfere with your work schedule. Rank your options from most to least ideal, and prepare to be flexible on registration day.

Thinking ahead can also help you make scheduling work hours more flexible. When you fill out your FAFSA

paperwork, indicate your interest in work-study roles.

You may be eligible for a federally-funded on-campus role, and that type of job makes it easy to work around your academic schedule.

Habits: Hacking Your Brain

You hear a lot about bad habits and not nearly enough about forming positive ones. A habit is any behavior that you perform automatically. Creating new patterns requires a lot of mindful repetition, motivating incentives, and willpower.

You can start by swapping maladaptive habits with more productive replacements. For example, what do you do the moment you get home from class?

What if, instead of logging onto your favorite streaming service, you immediately opened your planner and took stock of your day?

You could add new classwork to your to-do list, glance at your work schedule, and note any urgent upcoming due dates or events. This one small change could motivate you to take care of a high-priority activity rather than “recovering” from class.

Hacking your brain takes work. You will have to hold yourself accountable each time you return home. It can help to maintain a star chart or “don’t break the chain” chart for positive reinforcement.

Routines: Reward by Rote

Routines are similar to habits, and you likely already follow quite a few. A routine is a series of steps you perform in the same order every time.

Think about the steps you follow when you wake up and get ready each morning, from washing your face to making your bed. When you follow your routine, you ensure you don’t miss an essential step. You probably have routines at work, too, such as the steps in an opening or closing checklist.

If you struggle to balance school and work, you might benefit from additional daily routines. Do you have routines for prepping breakfast or lunch materials? How about for studying, completing planning tasks for work, setting out clothes, or packing your bag for class?

Once these chores become routine, mindless parts of your

day, you’ll free up plenty of time and headspace.

Communication: Talking It Out

Regardless of what you’re studying, you’ll want to master the skill of communication. It’s very easy to assume what another person will say or do. Making a genuine human connection can often open doors you thought were closed to you.

For example, you might find that the section of a course you hoped to take is full, and the other section conflicts with your work schedule. Consider contacting the professor or your college registrar with a polite email and asking if they might be willing to make an exception.

The same is true for deadlines. Each deadline is set in place by your professors. If you anticipate needing an extension, there is no shame in communicating that need to increase your odds of success.

You can have similar conversations with your employers. Be transparent about any scheduling hurdles you anticipate needing to jump in the future, such as internship requirements or lengthy lab classes only offered on certain days. Communication is a courtesy, and your thoughtfulness might earn you special consideration down the line.

Your teachers and supervisors are people first, and flexibility is possible when you treat them as such.

Mastering the Work and College Balancing Act

It’s a classic Catch-22: you need to go to school to afford a job, but you need the job to afford tuition. It’s possible to strike a balance between work and college that will leave you plenty of time to socialize and enjoy the best years of your life. With a bit of forethought and communication, you’ll develop habits and form routines that lead to success.