4 Time Management Tips For Students With Part-time Jobs

College or university will likely be looked back upon as some of the best years of your life. But if you have to work part-time to pay your tuition fees or support yourself throughout college, you might want to look for time management tips so you don’t end up failing your studies.

You are finally learning about topics and subjects you are actually interested in, you are getting to know new people and still meet up with many of your old friends from high school, your classes are more flexible, and you even sometimes get to skip class without any huge ramifications.

On the other hand, though, college or university can be quite overwhelming at times. You now must balance class, homework, study sessions, and exam prep. 

And on top of all that, many students must find time to work. Paying your way as a student can be very stressful, it’s arguably one of the hardest aspects of being a student.

Balancing your time between a part-time job and full-time study certainly isn’t easy. This is why it’s so important to have good time management skills.

How do you manage your time better, you ask? Read on as we run you through our top 4 time management tips for students with part-time jobs.

1. Ensure Study Is Your Top Priority

Picking up a part-time job is a necessary reality for many students. Paying the bills, having money for necessities like food or medications, and having a little extra cash for the odd house party doesn’t come cheap. However, if you start prioritizing your work over your studies, you may actually be worse off in the long run. 

Think about it, the entire reason you are at college or university is to obtain a higher paying salary after you’re finished with your degree. Therefore, spending as much time on your studies to achieve high grades is highly beneficial, particularly if you are intending to do post-graduate studies, which many of us are.

You could think about it like this, rather than skipping class to work an extra shift to earn, let’s say an extra $50-100, is often not worth your while. According to a study conducted by HSBC students studying in America spend, on average, $39,045 USD on tuition fees over the time they spend at university or college.

For a 4-year degree, that works out to be roughly $188 a week. So maybe it isn’t a great idea to skip class for work as it’s costing you a lot of money!

2. Run With A Class Schedule That Allows Time For Your Commitments

It may not always be possible, but if you are able to develop a class schedule that you enough time for all your commitments. 

This will become more obvious as you have put a couple of semesters in the bank. Certain subjects or professors demand more of your time. Therefore, try to balance your class schedule the right way.

If you know you have a hectic course coming up, try to balance this with easier electives that will ease the weight of that intensive class. 

Another way to tackle a busy work/class schedule is to try and condense, where possible, your classes into one day. Making 2 or 3 trips to campus per week is better than having your classes spread over 4 or 5 days. 

This will not only save you time, but it will also save you money. 

The less you have to commute to campus, the less you have to spend on travel, and the less you have to work.

3. Develop A Consistent Work Schedule

Although your classes vary twice a year with the change of each semester, once they are locked in, they often won’t change. With each semester being a few months, it should be fairly easy to work out a work schedule with your employer around your classes.

Ask your employer, boss, or supervisor to create a work schedule, where possible, for the same hours and days every week. 

With the same work and class hours every week you can much more easily fall into a routine that allows you to find the time for all your commitments. 

And that’s because it’s far easier to manage your time if your schedule is consistent.

4. Squeeze In Breaks As Often As You Can

No matter who you are, a student, working professional, or college or university professor, everybody needs breaks. And, often, the more the better.

A lot of us feel guilty for taking time out, we feel like we aren’t working as hard as we possibly could be, or we may even feel like we are slacking off. 

However, the opposite is often true.

Not taking regular breaks is setting yourself up for failure. 

Downtime is integral to maintaining good physical and mental health. If these areas of your wellbeing are taking a hit, so is your productivity and quality of work. 

A good way to manage this is to view breaks from your work and study as scheduled tasks. Pencil a break into your diary, add it into your laid-out week, and, of course, be as consistent as you possibly can be.

It’s also important to remember, taking breaks looks different for everybody. Some of us like to set a few hours aside each day for some downtime while others prefer to schedule an entire day or two off. Whichever way you go about it just ensure you are taking the time out to allow yourself to relax and recuperate.

That way, you’ll feel fresh and more motivated than ever to dive back into your busy schedule and smash out some more top-notch work.

Conclusion

Being a student is tough and a schedule full of college or university classes on top of part-time shifts can be brutal. 

To relieve the stress and anxiety that can come with this busy time of your life you must master the art of time management.

And do you know what else helps with a busy schedule?

Emma.

Emma is a money management app that will save you precious time and money. It was designed with the idea to help people like yourself take back control of their finances. 

Emma will help you get your spending under control and tighten up your budget as much as possible by looking for unwanted bank fees and wasteful subscriptions you could avoid.

That way, you can easily look after your budget while spending more time focusing on your studies and part-time job without endlessly worrying about making ends meet.

And the best part? It’s FREE!

Download Emma today from the App Store and Google Play Store.