Life,work and family life balancing

Completing coursework, maintaining and loving life, and paying for education all come with a lot of difficulties, making the person’s life seem stressful. Adults returning to or attending college for the first time have their interests well established, but in most instances, they seem to have forgotten what it is like to juggle the three most critical facets of their lives: family, education, and work. A day has just 24 limited hours, and keeping a career, being the best parent ever, getting a social life, and obtaining a decent academic diploma or degree all require certain tactics, not only strategies but realistic strategies. This paper will list some of the ways of establishing a balance between family life, work and college and they include planning, prioritizing and setting deadlines, utilization of flexible programs and finally reinforcing personal support system.

Planning, Prioritizing and Setting Deadlines

A calendar is a fundamental tool not only for students and work purposes but also for any parent. With the new and advanced technology has come cell phone inbuilt calendars that are easy to access at any place anytime. At the beginning of a semester, one should have jotted down all the important future activities, and that is inclusive of relevant and specific assignment and exam date, laundry days, gyms and all other weekly events. One should be self-controlled enough to stick to the schedule set, and by doing so, none of the significant events will be left unattended to or forgotten. Within the calendar, also, the activities listed in order of their importance and urgency and should have a deadline which acts as a driving force to the person to adhere to and make sure the task is completed in due time. It is at times normal to fail to achieve the set goals and objectives. However, persistence in the effort to meet the rest of the goals is equally essential (McNamara, Pitt-Catsouphes, Matz-Costa, Brown& Valcour, 2013).

Utilizing the Flexible Programs

It is easy to plan for the future, but one thing for sure is that no one can tell what the future holds, and the impacts of future occurrences. Therefore, it is essential that the student comes parent come employee looks for a particular program that does not completely tie them down and that slows down and speeds up the pace when the need arises. A good example of such programs is the online learning programs, which despite being highly flexible, need high discipline. Hybrid and on-site programs are precisely engineered to meet the needs of working people while also creating room for expecting the unexpected. More so, with family responsibilities and work, it is hard to make it to lectures on time on a daily basis. Thus the only next alternative is taking up online classes due to their flexibility. In most cases, people tend to prioritize families over their academics. Thus online classes create more room for a family time which would have been spending attending the lectures (McNamara et al., 2013).

Reinforcing Personal Support System

Enrollment for graduate programs does not only open doors to better job opportunities and career advancement for the person, but also affects those close to the individual. Studying at an adult life affects spouses and other relatives, nut forgetting the effects at the workplace. There, it is of essential importance that one speaks to their spouse way before embarking on the class program. Classes mean less time for taking care of family responsibilities and more workload for the partner and other relatives (Bello, 2014). At the workplace, also, it is advisable to let the employer know of the schooling plans to adjust their work routine and expectations. Importantly, it is vital to let the company know that the added educational skills and knowledge are meant to increase the value in the workplace. Thus the need for flextime, work from home schedule and delegation of responsibilities (Bello, 2014).

Conclusion

Trying to maintain a balance between social life, work and schoolwork often prove to be a daunting task, often leaving a person having trouble adjusting the three demanding schedule, and might consequently suffer stress. The fact that these three aspects could never attain a perfect balance makes the personal lives of people feel imperfect. However, several practice methods could try and bring a balance between college, work, and family life, and they include planning, prioritizing and setting deadlines, utilization of flexible programs and finally reinforcing personal support system. Having all the priorities jotted down makes it hard to forget about important tasks, thus ensuring activities from the three areas each gets a fair portion of the limited time. Involving and prior informing the spouses, family, and employer on the schooling programs is also essential as one would require some help in one way or the other from these parties just to make the learning, working and family life normal and convenient for everyone affected directly or indirectly.

References

Bello, G. (2014). 5 Tips to Realize Your Optimal Work/School/Life Balance | Columbia University School of Professional Studies. Sps.columbia.edu. Retrieved 6 July 2017, from http://sps.columbia.edu/news/5-tips-achieve-your-optimal-workschoollife-balance

McNamara, T. K., Pitt-Catsouphes, M., Matz-Costa, C., Brown, M., & Valcour, M. (2013). Across the continuum of satisfaction with work–family steadiness: Work hours, flexibility-fit, and work–family culture. Social science research, 42(2), 283-298.