Tips and tricks for balancing life as a working student

Studying while working is a situation many students face.  

If you’re feeling worried about starting a new course or feel like you could improve your work-life-study balance, then you’ve come to the right place! Striving towards a career goal while supporting yourself may pose challenges, but with some thoughtful planning and organisation, it’s possible to succeed in both areas – all while maintaining a harmonious, balanced lifestyle.  

Here’s some of our ​​​​top tips and tricks to help you navigate life and thrive as a working student.  

Create a schedule

Creating your own schedule is one of the best things you can do to reduce stress, perform well in your studies, and build vital time management skills that you’ll continue to draw upon throughout your career. 

If you’re working regular days, sit down before your studies start and figure out the best days and times for you to study, being careful to include a healthy amount of downtime. We’ll give you a hint – it might be best not to plan your biggest study session after a huge day at work, but you can likely still get some smaller tasks done! If you’re working casually, you may also need to dedicate a regular day to plan out the week ahead.  

When it comes down to it, each person has a different schedule that works for them, and it may take some trial and error to find out what creates the best balance for you.  

Set specific goals

​​Goal setting is a highly important practice for achieving your dreams. They’re great at reminding you what your hard work is all about. ​Even studying for an hour or completing an assignment means you're one step closer to your bigger goals. ​Just imagine how satisfied you’ll feel as you tick off each task on your list!  ​ 

Goal setting must be done thoughtfully. Often, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves by aiming a little too high. Being ambitious is fantastic, but we need to be ‘SMART’ about our goals, too. 

Setting SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) goals are a powerful strategy for balancing work and study.   

Specific - Define exactly what you want to accomplish and why.  

Measurable - Make it easy to determine when you’ve achieved your goal. For example, rather than ‘study more’, choose ‘read two chapters of my textbook’.  

Achievable - Be realistic about what you can do in the time you have. Break your bigger goals into smaller, realistic chunks and you’ll get there with less pressure and more victories to celebrate along the way. 

Relevant - Make sure your goals are relevant to your larger career and lifestyle goals, taking your top priorities into account.  

Time-bound - Setting a final date for the goal will help you actively work towards it. This allows you to evaluate how it went and set even stronger goals for the future! 

This approach enhances productivity, keeps you motivated towards the bigger picture, and gives you a nice confidence boost throughout your journey. 

Seek support

If you’re ever feeling like the pressure is mounting, don’t be afraid to ask for a little help from your friends and family! Reach out and let them know you’re finding things difficult. There are so many little things they may be able to do to help – even if it’s lending an unjudging ear for you to vent or simply hanging out a load of laundry. 

There’s also the friendly Support Team at Foundation Education who you can call upon whenever you run into challenges with your studies. Between Student Support Officers and our expert team of Trainers and Assessors, there’s a wide variety of support to choose from to help you thrive in your course. You can get in contact with them via live chat, phone or email through your student portal. 

Stay organised

To keep on top of your schedule and your goals, you’ll need to stay organised! 

‘Tidy space, tidy mind’ is a saying for good reason. Making sure all your documents, notebooks and assignment instructions are easily accessible is going to make a huge difference when you sit down to study. Speaking of sitting down to study – thanks to the power of ​​​​​online study​, you can study from practically anywhere. Try to find a ​​​​​favourite spot​ in your home, library, or even a cafe, where you won’t be disturbed while you get into focus-mode.  

Organising your coursework will help you create an even more productive schedule and avoid overwhelm. In your long-term planner you can map out all the upcoming due dates of your assignments – this will help you to reduce brain fog and give you a clear overview of what you need to do. Then you can keep on track by breaking tasks down and prioritising week-by-week.   

Make sure that you give yourself enough time to get started on the heftiest assignments, planning out the smaller tasks throughout each week. Pop all this info into your schedule, and you’ll be on top of your game! 

Maintain a good work-life balance

All the advice we’ve shared is super useful, as long as you’re still prioritising the most important thing: you!   

Your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing are intricately linked to your academic success. By prioritising exercise, sleep, eating well and still making time in your schedule for loved ones wherever you can, you’ll be putting your best foot forward into every aspect of your life.  

There’s no point in creating a schedule that involve​s​ sacrificing eight hours of sleep or skipping meals – in the long run, it could result in a serious case of burnout. It’s always better to make steady, consistent efforts that allow you to maintain a sense of inner wellbeing.   

So go on, give yourself a break when you need one. 

Sure, there’s a few extra things you need to be mindful of when you’re working and studying at the same time. But with organisation and perseverance, you can ace life as a working student – it may even help unlock your true potential.  

Ready to ​set a new path in your career​? Browse Foundation Education’s range of online courses or call 1300 616 197 to speak with our friendly Careers Advisors today.