How to Juggle School with Work

How to juggle school with work

How to Juggle School with Work

As a result of the rising unemployment rate in Nigeria, many have been forced to believe that there is no need to wait until after graduation to start working and earning money. To a lot of people, schooling is a scam as your degree will take you nowhere if you do not have connections. For a few others who are not opportune to be parented by people who are financially stable, working while in school aids the payment of their bills. Some believe that working while studying is a means to hone their talents and skills, get experience and figure out what they truly want to do when they leave school.However, when one tries to do two or more things at a time, there are always a bunch of hurdles that follow. Sometimes, one would succeed at the detriment of the other. Other times, you would need to give more attention to one than the other and there are times that doing both would frustrate you. Then you begin to wonder if they are even worth it. However, giving up is never an option, as these are just phases that can be crossed over. To successfully cross over these hurdles, you must first acknowledge that things would get rough and rugged as you progress. Afterwards, you must set up strategies and plans to guide you. Here are some strategies to help you juggle school with work:

Work Flexibly

As a student schooling in Nigeria, the educational system is enough to stress the life out of your body. So, if you intend to work at all, it must be flexible work. It would be almost impossible to work in a place with fixed hours. Whatever you choose as your means to earn money, should be something you can do from the comfort of your home. You should also be able to pause and resume later whenever it begins to wear you out.

The work you choose must be more than a mere interest or source of income

Whatever you choose to do must be something you are passionate about. It must be something you love and enjoy doing. Do you like reading and writing? You could work as a freelance writer, editor or proofreader. Do you enjoy photography? Do you like speaking? You could host shows, etc. Loving what you do makes escaping the frustration that comes with doing two things at a time easy. Also, you wouldn’t have to wait until your service is requested before you create pieces. At your leisure, you would have created lovely paintings, photographed lovely images, written great pieces, etc. When you are frustrated, and you decide to give up working, you will then remember why you do what you do. Because you love doing it, because it gives you peace, you will find solace.

Set Priorities

You may have come across the term, “scale of preference” which involves you arranging your needs according to their level of importance. Your most pressing need is at the top, then the least pressing ones follow. When creating this, you take “timing” into consideration. Do you need this thing now? Or would it be better off to get it later? This is very similar to prioritising. You must consider what is most important to you per moment. Obviously, school is, but sometimes both could weigh equally. When tests and exams are drawing nearer, you will most likely have to put your work on hold (the main reason why it must something flexible) and prioritise your studies. Also, you should know when to reject certain gigs (especially when the pay doesn’t equal the workload or when the workload is too much for the set time).While taking these three strategies into consideration, knowing what you can handle is also very important. When you take up more than you can handle, you end up doing a bad job and your studies might suffer as well.By Nonyalim UchechukwugemeAlso read: 5 Steps to Help You Survive Unemployment