Balancing School and Life

 Life Domains: School, Family, Friends, Romantic Relationship, Job, Activities, Church, etc…  Role Pressure: Each domain requires unique responsibilities and pressures on your time and energy

 School-life balance: ability to balance roles and responsibilities in school and other life domains  School-life conflict: Role pressures from school and other life domains are incompatible in some way such that one role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the other role  Each requires unique time and energy commitments

 Feeling stressed out and completely exhausted by the end of the day.  Feeling sluggish and unable to make changes in your life to improve your life.  Feeling like you are falling behind and can’t ever catch up.

 Personal well-being  Higher quality relationships with peers and family  Greater school success and enjoyment

 Not a high school graduate: $23,400  High school graduate: $30,400  Associate’s degree: $38,200  Bachelor’s degree: $52,200  Master’s degree: $62,300  Professional degree: $109,600  Doctoral degree: $89,400

 Discuss the following questions:  What are some issues that come up for you or others your age that make balancing school and life difficult?  How do you currently balance school and life? Do you have any strategies that might be useful to others?

 Being a good student doesn’t mean you have to drop everything else. You can earn good grades and have a healthy social life if you learn how to balance the two.

1. It’s not one or the other: Think of balance as a continuum from a 10 being “perfect” balance” to a 1 meaning “total chaos.” 2. Techniques that work for some may not work for others. 3. Be clear about your personal, professional, and leisure goals. 4. Achieving school-life balance occurs in incremental steps.

 Set goals and plans at the beginning of each school semester.  Plot out your schedule each week and follow it as closely as you can.  Find small gaps of time and highlight them: these are good times to do schoolwork, leaving larger gaps (such as on the weekend) free.  Set aside at least one large chunk of time each week for free time, such as one full weekend day.

 Make sure that whenever you find yourself with small gaps of spare time that you use the time efficiently.  Include social time in your weekly plans; it is not realistic nor achievable to fill your schedule with school/work responsibilities only.  Try establishing rituals out of your transitions between school and family/social time, such as a walk. This helps some people compartmentalize the different life domains.  Encourage your friends to set schedules that match yours so you can coordinate your free time.

 Write down your goals and plans for the short- and long-term.  Keep a journal.  When deciding to take on a new responsibility or activity, ask yourself: What’s the cost? Will this add to my life or create more stress?  Volunteer to help people less fortunate.  Cut out activities in your life that are not productive or are not priorities.

 What we want out of life: Achievement and Enjoyment  We tend to understand the importance of achievement, but we often neglect enjoyment in our lives.  Strive daily for both achievement and enjoyment in your life.  For example, at school, work to achieve academic success but also participate in activities that you enjoy.  Establishing balance between our life domains such as school, family, peers, and activities will lead to a meaningful life.

 Visualize your ideal life in 10 years. Make a list of the top 10 things you want to accomplish within the next 10 years.  What are your top 10 priorities for the next school year?  To help you reach these goals, finish the following statements. I need to:  Start doing…  Stop doing…  Continue doing…  Do more…  Do less…  Do differently…

 1. Thomas J. Denham. Work life balance: Tips and Techniques. Accessed June 10,  2. Jennifer C. Day and Eric C. Newburger The big payoff: Educational attainment and synthetic estimates of work-life earnings. Current Population Reports, Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau.  3. Ashish Patel. Time management: Striking the Right Balance. Accessed June 10,  4. WorkLifeBalance.com Work-life balance defined: What it really means. Accessed June 10, 2009.