Work as a Study Tactic-Is this For Real?

According to many articles, like Students Who Work During College, it can actually be beneficial to  a students grades to work during their undergrad. This particular article found that students who didn’t work had an average of a 3.04 overall GPA, versus a 3.14 overall GPA for students who work between 1 and 20 hours per week.

Some people may be thinking “no way is that right; more work=less time for schoolwork.” However, a logical thinker could see where this would make sense. When you know that you’re going to have less time for schoolwork, you’re going to be more likely to practice better time management. For instance, say I have a big assignment due in class on Tuesday, but I also have to work both Sunday and Monday night. I’m going to be more likely set aside an adequate amount of time beforehand to finish my assignment. Whereas, if I know that I have nothing going on and lots of time to work on the assignment, I will be more likely to procrastinate and put it off until the last minute. Or, I might also be more likely to think I have a lot of time to work on schoolwork, so I’ll start one thing and forget about my other assignment instead of adequately managing my time.

So in the end, while work may make you feel stressed out and you feel as though you have no time for schoolwork, it can actually be beneficial in learning to effectively manage your time and keep yourself organized.

A Day in The Life: Starring Me

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post (see Welcome! post), I am a full-time student and am dependent upon myself financially. This means that I spend nearly all of my time outside of class at Bob’s Your Uncle (BYU).

Let me explain just how literally I mean all of my time: On Wednesdays I have one class from 3:30-5:20. Yesterday (Wednesday), my boss scheduled me to manage the restaurant from 10:30 until 2:30, at which time I had to leave for class, and then to come back and manage from 6:00 until 10:00. Now, besides the fact that this schedule makes for a very long day, it also makes for a stressful week when homework is a factor.

This is where I struggle the most: time management! When spending literally an entire day at work and in class, the last thing I want to do when finally returning home twelve hours later is sit down to do homework.

I also really enjoy having a social life, as I know most people do. This is another difficult part of being a full-time student and working to support yourself and spending time with friends but also making time for my family. This is not me trying to say “Woe is me, I have a horrible life,” anyone who knows me knows that that couldn’t be further from the truth, but sometimes all of these factors working together make for stressful times!

My question is, how do other people in my situation successfully manage all of their time and tasks without stressing to the max? Maybe I have the answer – sleep deprivation!