If you’re a college student that juggles studies with work you know how difficult it can get at times. You know what I’m referring to- the long days, the short sleeps, early morning anxiety, and the last minute stress.
I was initially going to throw out a list of ways to stay motivated as a college student that holds a job but I figured I would just say write whatever is on my mind without any particular format. It is a blog after all, right?
Just remember that it will all be over one day. Your studies will be completed. You will have a degree in your hand. You will graduate from college debt free or with minimal student debt. You may even have some money saved up in your bank account. This financially buffer will alleviate some of the stress that comes along with the career hunt after college. You won’t have to jump at the first offer that comes your way (unless it’s an amazing one).
Obviously life won’t get easier after college but at least the stress of studying for exams and worrying about earning the grades you want will go away. Now you can push yourself in a totally different discipline. The discipline of the real world. The discipline of finding that first career and negotiating your starting salary.
Another way to stay motivated when working during the school year is to use some of the money to reward yourself. This doesn’t mean to pick up a serious drinking or smoking habit. That will only make things worse for you. However, there is nothing wrong with planning a weekend trip a few times a semester. I choose to plan a week vacation at the end of every semester to keep me sane and motivated throughout the tough times. In the back of my mind I stay focused knowing that once I write my final exam I will be gone for a week.
Others just simply need a quick escape at the end of the day or at the end of a long week to stay motivated while working through college. What is the escape for you? Some common escapes include: alone time, playing video games, a free drinks with friends, a workout, playing your favorite sport, etc.
Before I conclude I wanted to throw out one more idea. Think of working as a way to keep yourself focused and out of trouble. If you were not to work you may spend most of your time studying. On the other hand, all of that free time may not be good for you. Personally I know that free time is not the best option for me. When I have free time my mind tends to wander. I look at my to-do list in the morning and then by night time the list remains identical. On paper free time is perfect for completing all of your school work. Realistically, let’s be honest. Most of the free time is spent watching the Hills or old UFC fights. So if you ever are low on time, look at it from this perspective. If you were at home there is no guarantee you would be 100% focused on your school.
How do you stay motivated while working during the school year?
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
This post comes at a great time. We’re hitting the last few weeks of the semester when everything kicks up a notch. Thanks for the post!
Using my own college experience along with that of friends and co-workers, I tend to disagree about your sentiment on student loans. It is true that you will go into the workplace with quite a bit of debt (particularly for more expensive degrees) but I think that debt isn’t as bad as the alternatives I’ve seen.
I know multiple people who dropped out of school because they were so adverse to debt that they had to work full time and go to school at the same time. Some had very poor grades and had to repeat classes multiple times while others just didn’t see the benefit in continuing to pay such a large portion of their income for school.
I took out student loans and it gave me plenty of time to do well in school and to actually have a life outside of school and work (I did work part time also).
Before someone considers whether to apply for student loans or to attempt and work through it and stay out of debt, they should really decide if that type of schedule can mess with their chances of completing school. This is based on purely personal experience and I don’t have any true statistical numbers to back up this opinion.
@Erwin Was hoping to hear that perspective!
My rebuttal to your argument would be that working during the school year is definitely not for everyone. It wasn’t for me either until I realized how much more fun I can have down south as opposed to on bars around campus.
I also absolutely hate debt. I’m willing to sleep 3 hours a night at times if it means I will graduate debt free. Not the smartest idea but I never said I was the smartest guy lol.
I will recommend this for anyone that is not willing to work during the school year- find a program with work terms. My cousin does this. One semester he’s in school and the next semester he works. It may take longer graduate but he’s having a blast while integrating the theory with the practical.
If you want to finish college asap then that’s cool as well.
I’m always so impressed if students can study, party and work at the same time.
It’s hard enough trying to get straight A’s to land yourself that high paying gig out of college, to be able to get A’s and work is out of this world!
I couldn’t hack it, making $5/hour in the library so I did some daytrading instead. I ended up probably losing $3,000! haha. But, what it did do was prepare me for a life in finance and I’m very thankful for that.
@FS Don’t worry I think everyone in the cyber world has lost some money on day trading.
The reason all 3 can be done is because junk is cut out. I realized that if I stopped watching TV and spending hours on Facebook I could be 100x more productive. The partying is a rare occurrence when both school and work are in session but it is definitely something that keeps me sane.
What do you do in the working world to keep sane M-F?
Edwin, I have posted to the site and was wondering if you could help me come up with a optimized time schedule for school online college, working at home, and my children? My name is Kimberly Seaton at kimberlyseaton65@yahoo.com
MD – You can’t tell? I’m a small-time writer and editor M-F on my site, Financial Samurai!
Good stuff! A creative outlet should be something everyone has.
MD – Financial Samurai isn’t only my creative outlet, it’s my only means of survival!
“Sam”
I am a current student and a full time worker a home and need some assistance on optimizing my time with college online, family and ect. I only have two classes a week and have access any hours I need to to get my assisgnments done. I recieve my assignments on Sundays and they have to be complete by Saturday night. I have three children and work around the house doing the house hold chorse outside and inside. one of my children are in school during the day and the other two are with me. Can you give me ideas of how to make me a schedule to be flexable for me. my class assisgnments usually require from 2-4 hours per week per class and I have two classes a week. Can you help?
Hi Kimberly, the first thing I notice is you already have a very flexible, although busy, schedule. You don’t seem to have issues actually completing the work, but you want more flexibility in doing it. The best suggestion I can give is to take a closer look at the type of homework you have to do and see if you can break it down.
For example in a math class assigning you a certain set of problems, you can break it down into 20 minute chunks. This could be more difficult to do if you have to write a paper and, like me, tend to be slow getting started.
Not only will you have to find a good way to break it into chunks but you will also have to cut down on the set up time. If you have a place you normally do homework but is used for something else the rest of the time (like a dining room table), you should find a place that you can use exclusively for homework. If you do that, you will be able to sit down when you find a moment and get a chunk of work done without spending 5-10 minutes preparing yourself. This also gets rid of the mental hurdle of having to spend time before you can even start the homework.
I realize that’s fairly generic advice but if you spend a little bit of time trying to organize your homework, it can not only save you time when doing the homework but it can make the homework be less demanding on your schedule.
I am a Culinary Arts student at the U of Akron. I will graduate in the fall of 2010 with my AS in Culinary Arts (my passion). My problem is that I am also taking classes in the College of Business. It is a very nice college, ranked 73rd last time I looked it up. Anyways, my problem is that I am in Corporate Finance now and I hate it. I will most likely get a D in that class, but it is ok I will still have a 2.0 to get admitted into the college. My main problem is that I dont know wether to just follow my passion and get my AS and be done with school, or wake up every day for the next year or so and dread going to class? I want to open up my own restaurant some day, but is a BS really needed? I can get into the Business college, but I would have to take 2 more Accounting and Finance classes, which I dread beyond belief. Any help/thoughts/ideas on what to do? Either basically “drop out” of the business core classes, I am not in the college as of yet=(waste about 10k and time, and maybe pick it up later) and get my AS in my passion in life, or stick it out more and dread it all?
Thanks
Tom
I think the main question is how useful the BS will be. If it may not make any difference, you’re either wagering that it will come in handy, or throwing good money after bad. Don’t know enough about your area to say whether it’ll help you out- you might want to track down and ask someone who’s on the career path you’re hoping for. But if it is going to help you, it may be a good idea. Just as long as the amount it helps is worth enough to balance out how much you hate the class. I got through a couple of units last semester with exactly that attitude. As long as you can remember why it’s important that you finish the units, you’ll make it.