Many students find it challenging to balance school work with their personal hobbies since they have a lot of responsibilities to carry on their shoulders. In the last few months, I felt the same. But we are not robots!

We need to live our lives with balance. On one hand, we need to focus on our academic education, and on the other hand, it is necessary to give ourselves time for relaxation, creativity, and most importantly, personal development.

With the help of my mentor and some books I read, I could manage to balance well. I've become better and better at it! Since my hobby is to share golden tips with others, I will provide you with the best 3 practical tips. This article will guide you to enjoy both schoolwork and self-work.

Before anything else, you need to know clearly what schoolwork and self-work are. Homework, practicing lessons, past papers, projects, and reading (for class) are academic schoolwork. Moreover, activities regarding personal development skills and self-love, such as healing, meditation, drawing, reading (for fun), spending time with family, and staying in peace alone.

You need to rejoice with both. So how shall we do it?

Combine Self-Work with School Breaks

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Well! This topic might be familiar to you. However, only a few people can do as it says. The reason is that whenever you come back from school after a tiring day, you usually find it unnecessary to do self-care activities.

Self-work is as essential as schoolwork for every student. Once you understand their importance, I would like to suggest how you can prioritize both of them.

Create a routine

Cultivate a routine that involves self-care habits such as relaxation, exercise, or hobbies. And set a specific time to do them right after school every single day. This routine will surely help you to shift your mind from school stress and provide you with a healthy lifestyle.

Start small

Whenever we plan our routine, we usually procrastinate, like, “I will do it tomorrow,” or “I will start doing it on Monday.” So you should start doing it as soon as you have planned. And always remember that “Doing a little is better than doing nothing!”

Set boundaries and take breaks

Stop being study-mad and avoid overworking. I know school-related tasks are very important for your future, but what about your health? Don’t stress out by doing a lot of work. After studying enough, consistently do self-care activities on breaks, for instance, eye exercises and journaling.

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Stay Organised

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Staying organized is one of the most virtual habits that a student should have. Take study space as an example. Maintaining a neat and clean study space is key to staying focused and concentrating well. As we are all students, I will provide you with the 3 best ways to stay organized.

Don’t multitask

It might be good to multitask if you are doing household chores, for example listening to podcasts while ironing. However, multitasking is not always good, especially while studying. Therefore, when you do focused activities such as learning and studying, do it with full focus.

Since self-care activities are as important as focused activities, you should do it with full focus too. Try to avoid doing a lot of things at once. Instead, do one thing at a time with full focus.

Be disciplined

Being disciplined and consistent are important factors in staying organized. In general, you should be especially disciplined physically and intellectually. Physically, you should consistently tidy up your study space, desk, bag, and so on. Intellectually, you should consistently fight your bad intention to not spend your time on useless social media but instead study.

Effectively manage your time

Maintaining a well-organized schedule is essential for juggling hobbies, schooling, and personal health. To keep track of tasks, due dates, and personal objectives, use planners or digital calendars. This time monitoring guarantees that you set aside time for hobbies and self-care and avoids last-minute haste.

Practice Mindfulness Often

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Mindfulness is very important for students since it helps their minds be peaceful and more focused. Moreover, it helps a person stay in the present. In order to happily balance academics and mentality, being calm, peaceful, and fully aware is necessary.

Nevertheless, most people usually think that mindfulness practice is meditation. It is partly correct. Because meditation is usually practiced in a sitting position. However, mindfulness can be practiced everywhere, every time with every position even when you are lying or back to school in the car.

In order to do so, you can use the tip called “54321 method”. This method is the best way to live in the present since you have to do this regarding the 5 senses you own. They are sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell.

There are actually 6 senses in Buddhism. But the 6th sense is the mind so, if you are fully aware of the 5 senses, it is auto-involved.

You can practice the tip by naming. For example, 5 things that you can smell, 4 things you can see, 3 things you can touch, 2 things you can hear, and 1 thing you can taste.

No Social Media Rule

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Last but not least, limiting screen time by not using any social media helps you stay healthy and balanced. Once you don’t use social media you will find you have more time to do other things that you did before. Social media is an obstacle.

It gives you cheap dopamine which is not ideal in the long run. Therefore, you have to do time management to use less digital platforms.

My recommended time-management tip is a time-blocking method. It is the method that you have to write down every single part of the time of your day, including personal hygiene time, eating time, and sleeping hours and actually follow it. It is not easy but not impossible either. So, do your best first and feel the result later.

Know When to Adjust

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Most of the time, after we have planned, students-including myself-tend to follow exactly from the to-do list. It is excellent sometimes, however, when we do something that is not in the plan or it doesn't turn out according to plan, we have no motivation at all to continue doing it. “365 days, 365 ways!” As this quote says every single day is different. While some days can call for more self-work to cope with stress, other days might call for more focus on schooling. Be adaptable and change your plans as necessary.

In conclusion, staying balanced with both school and self is necessary, yet intolerably challenging for some people. So, I’ve mentioned easy-to-follow techniques for everybody. Try it out, and break a leg!