Students Find Balance Between School and Life By: Katie Schweigardt
Class. Homework. Sleep. Repeat. This is the cycle that college students get caught up in, especially in their first year. Because students may feel over
whelmed by classes and a heavier schoolwork load, they often neglect their personal life for academic success. However, students can have academic success while having a flourishing personal life.
“In order to enjoy school to the fullest, we have to have other things we enjoy outside of it too,” assistant professor of psychology Katie Golway said.
School does not have to be a student's entire life. Actually having things outside of school that fill a students cup leads to better academics in the classroom, Golway said.
“If we have a balance between how hard we’re working on academics and other things like we enjoy athletics or socialization or just rest, that helps us avoid being burnt out by school where we're not just getting so overwhelmed and tired of it,” Golway said.
Students have their own ways to unwind and relax. Some students prefer being around others, while some prefer being by alone.
“I kind of have a mix of things I do. Some things I just do on my own like sit in my room and play X-box or watch TV, and that’s kind of how I decompress,” senior accounting and finance major Chase Austin said.
Taking time away from school actually helps students in the classroom, but some students might struggle with how to balance school and their personal life, Golway said.
“When we’re stressed, lots of things start to fall apart. Mentally we start to not feel as well and that can lead us to not be as engaged in our classes, be more distracted, or it can lead our physical health to start to deteriorate,” Golway explained.
The stresses of life can become overwhelming and seem impossible when students do not have a plan on how to manage their schoolwork load with outside responsibilities. However, students can combat this by finding effective strategies to help organize their responsibilities.
“If I’m stressed out because I have a lot of things do, I’ll write down the things in the order that they’re due so I can figure out which one needs to be done first and then seeing it all written down kind of helps,” freshmen exercise science major Helen Schafer said.
A great way for students to put this into practice is by using a planner to write down and organize their assignments and tasks.
“My first piece of advice always is get a planner and you can write things out and visualize it,” Golway said.
While planning ahead can help students stay organized, it does not mean that every hour has to be filled with school work. Instead, creating a schedule can help students find the balance they need.
“Plan out your time and set aside some time to make sure you get your school work done. But besides that, don’t try to spend super late hours, super long hours working on school,” Austin said.
For students like Austin, setting aside specific time for school work and personal activities helps him achieve balance. However, students like Schafer prefer having weekdays for school work and weekends for thorough personal life.
“So Monday thru Thursday, I’m grinding out my schoolwork and then on the weekends I try not to have any schoolwork and put that aside for the weekend,” Schafer said.
Maintaining a healthy school-life balance means making time for both academics and personal life, without feeling the need to do everything at once.
“Give yourself grace and flexibility. I don’t have to do it all, but I need to do school and I need to do something that’s good for my well-being outside of that that I enjoy and being willing to adjust for how that can look and asking for help when you need it,” Golway said.
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