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Achieving a Work-Life-School Balance

Achieving a Work-Life-School Balance
by Dina Mishev

You’ve got hours of homework to do, work is a disaster and the kids are complaining they haven’t seen you in days. Managing work and family is hard enough—88 percent of respondents in a survey conducted by Fast Company magazine said they find juggling their work and personal lives difficult—but an ever-increasing percentage of adults are adding school into the mix as well. Thankfully, unlike work and your home life, school lasts for a designated amount of time: 10 months, two years—whatever it is, at least you can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

While this light at the end of the tunnel is reassuring in the long run, you still have to learn how to balance everything in the short term. We’re not going to pretend it won’t be difficult—after all, just because you’re in school doesn’t mean the number of hours in a day will double—but it is do-able. The same Fast Company survey found that 87 percent of respondents believed it was possible to achieve balance in life if you made it a priority.

Everyone’s circumstances are different, but here are some wide-ranging hints that should help across the board.

Arrive at work early. Most people don’t take this advice, but that’s good news for you. Take advantage of the relative quiet of the office—no co-workers coming to you with problems, not too many email or phone messages to respond to yet—and get a head start on (or even start and finish) some of the day’s most pressing tasks. You’d be surprised at how much work you can get done when you don’t face any disruptions.

Leave work on time. Working late can’t always be helped, but try for an on-time departure at least three times a week.

Don’t take work home. Sometimes “homework” is unavoidable, but make it a last resort. Not only does it signal to your family that work is more important to them (even if that isn’t the case), but also it is not productive. Imagine trying to concentrate on sales figures or writing a memo with a spouse and kids milling about and craving attention. If you have something that just has to get done, better to stay at work and finish it up. It will end up taking less time and will be a better product. And your family won’t feel like they’re playing second-fiddle.

Minimize working weekends. Whether your weekend is the traditional Saturday-Sunday or a Wednesday-Thursday, try to keep it free from work. We know, it is easier to say than do, but if you make a work-free weekend a priority, it can be done. Use prioritized task lists to determine what really needs to be done when. Most things can wait until Monday, if not Tuesday or Wednesday. If Gen. Colin Powell—an overachieving, overcommitted professional if ever there was one—can do it, you can, too. In his autobiography, My American Journey, Powell writes about a speech he gave his soldiers in Germany: “The Army is to be enjoyed, not endured. Have fun in your command. Don’t always run at a breakneck pace. Take leave when you’ve earned it. Spend time with your families. I don’t intend to work on weekends unless it’s absolutely necessary. And I don’t expect you to either. Anyone found logging Saturday or Sunday hours for himself or his troops had better have a good reason.”

Schedule time with family and friends. You schedule meetings with co-workers and managers, right? You have a class schedule. Why not pen in some quality time with friends and family, too? And your new work-free weekends can be a perfect time to do it. Research has shown people are more likely to do things written in a calendar or on a to-do list. It sounds silly, but go ahead and block out 30 minutes on your calendar or to-do list to help the kids walk the dog or to cook dinner with your spouse.

Start a study group. Students at traditional brick-and-mortar universities do it and so can online students. Study groups not only make homework more fun—one of my college study groups still has annual reunions even eight years after graduation—but can also help you gain a better grasp of material and save time. There’s nothing wrong with divvying up research tasks or problem sets—so long as it doesn’t result in mere copying when it comes time to share the fruits of everyone’s labor. Strive for a group with all members having a different area of expertise. That way, you don’t only have study partners but also easily accessible tutors.

Block out time for homework. As with most things, homework is done most easily when you can devote a significant chunk of time to it. Sure, 10 minutes is better than no minutes, but you’re not going to be able to get through a course on 10 minutes a day. Just as you do at work and with your family (as recommended above), schedule specific time to do schoolwork. If your spouse and kids know mom’s (or dad’s) study time is the hour after dinner every night, you’ll have an easier time minimizing interruptions and explaining why you’re disappearing.

Include kids in homework. If your kids are old enough—third or fourth grade should work—you can do homework together (killing two birds, family time and homework, with one stone). Since kids are in school themselves and can start to have a decent amount of homework by this age, sharing your own school and homework experiences with them can be a great way to bond. They’ll understand where you’re coming from, and you’d be surprised at how much of a resource they can be when you have a difficult problem set or when it comes time for you to cram for a test. A friend’s fifth grader once stood sentinel outside their home office door to ensure the three younger kids wouldn’t disturb dad while he was studying for a final. The next term, the same fifth grader made up accounting flash cards, copied from a textbook, and used them to quiz her dad.