If you’re planning to study abroad, there is a good chance you’ll want to work on the side for extra income. Many students who opt for foreign education like to keep their economic options open by looking for a part time job, mostly after their lectures. This not only helps you earn, but also gives you a sense of responsibility and helps you in understanding how to manage your finances while living on a foreign soil, which in most cases, is quite expensive. Here are few hacks that will help you balance both your study and your work:
1. Understand Why You Need To Work – The first thing you need to do, is grasp the basic idea of why this income is important to you. Do you want to take care of your personal expenses? Is your goal much higher? Are you willing to split your time between study and work? Once you have these questions answered, ask yourself if you have enough time to study, work and sleep properly. Extra income is always tempting, but it should not be at the expense of your education, which is your primary goal. Most countries allow you to work a certain hours when you’re a student. Some universities offer on campus jobs as well. Make sure that your time is split efficiently, which will allow you to focus on your education and will also help you get enough rest.
2. Plan Ahead – Planning ahead is the most important thing you need to take care of while studying abroad. Understand the fact that it will not be easy juggling time between lectures, work and private study. For this, you need to make a proper schedule and make sure that you stick to it. Make a weekly or a monthly planner that will help you organize your time among all the activities you plan on doing. Once you get used to the study schedule of your semester/trimester, you will know what is expected out of you and the amount of time you’ll need to dedicate to your studies.
3. Always Keep A Track Of Assignments – In extension to the previous point; it is important that you keep a note of all your assignments/submissions of that semester/trimester, ahead of time. This step will help you prioritize your tasks and you will know the amount of time you need to dedicate to each task. You won’t be in a rush at the last moment to complete your work just before the deadline and will save yourself for submitting half finished or poor quality assignments and poor grades.
4. Split Time – Dedicating at least 40 hours of your week to your studies is a must; which means fairly about 5-6 hours a day. Studying abroad is not a piece of cake. You will meet challenges everywhere. So you must learn how to tackle with each, in an effective and efficient manner. So making sure that your time is split efficiently is very important. There is no use finding a job on the other side of the city that will take you more than half an hour to travel one way. So look for a job near the campus (if not in the campus) which will not only save you time, but will also help you efficiently manage it.
5. Sleep Properly – Many people think sleep is an unimportant part of daily routine. But if you don’t sleep properly and enough, you may not be able to concentrate on both studies and work. If you do not take proper rest and help you brain relax for a few hours a day, you’ll remain tired next day. This will not only hamper your studies, but will also be a hindrance to your work. Studies have proved that sleep helps you retain memory. So if you want to remember what those lectures were telling you, allow yourself at least 6 hours of sleep daily. And remember- An overworked mind yields no benefit.
6. Keep yourself refreshed – You may think this is a joke considering the above points. But rest assured; it is not. There will be days when you will be so exhausted that batting you eyelid will be equal to moving mountains. You will be so worked that you would want to sleep for 3 straight days. You will probably want to quit on studies, job, humans, or even planet earth. But understand that your main aim is to study. If ever things become too stressed for you, cut short the time for work. Or take a few days off and relax. Visit your friends and refresh your mind. If all these tasks seem too unrealistic to you, all you need to do is set aside an hour or two each day, for you to relax and have just ‘YOU’ time. This should get you working like it’s your first day on the job.
7. Sacrificing and Shifting – You will need to sacrifice a few things in order to achieve a study-work-rest balance. Maybe your favourite TV show, or regularly hanging out at your favourite restaurants, or just sitting idle and staring at the wall. But you don’t entirely have to sacrifice it completely. Dedicate one day of the week to these tasks and call it your cheat day. Watch your favourite show, go out, do nothing, sleep all day, basically do whatever you want on this very day. But make sure you don’t carry the habit to the next day when you get back to your studies and work.
8. Becoming Tony Stark – Well you may not actually become a billionaire like Tony Stark by working part time while you’re a student, but you will at least be able to take care of your expenses. You’ll develop confidence, you’ll be able to manage your time better, you’ll still be able to have fun and the genius part of Tony Stark will depend on how well you manage both your studies and work efficiently.
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