How to Work Part Time while being a Full Time Student

How to Work Part Time while being a Full Time Student. 

Similar to most young adults these days, I experience the intense dread of college loans and debt. I am in my junior year of college and I am heading into adulthood with thousands of dollars to my name. After my freshman year, I decided to get a job to help with regular day costs.

A lot of people ask me how I manage to go to music school full time and work twenty hours a week. So here is how I do it and how you can do too.

Planning your semester

I can not stress the importance of scheduling classes yourself. I still recommend getting your advisors to assist you to make sure you have the credits you will need, but you have control to change it to what you need. Do it. For me, I do back to back classes so that I don’t have major breaks in my day. I also try to avoid early morning classes (unless it is the only. section offered). This is because I work early shifts at Dunkin. I am at work by 4:45am and then I get done about a half an hour before my classes. Of course this won’t work for everyone, but if you prefer to work at nights, try to schedule accordingly. Working part time can be difficult while being a full time student. 

Time management

The first thing I can recommend is understanding your schedule and how much time you have. At the start of the semester, I sit down and look at my class schedule. Where I am not in classes, plan out specific times that will be study/work periods. For me this means that the hour in between my two classes is meant for specific homework that needs to get done. It is all about understanding how much time you have and figuring out the best time to work for you personally.

Procrastination has no seat at this table

I use to be such a procrastinator and honestly I still have a tendency to want to procrastinate, but in this case, procrastination really can’t have a seat at this table. To be healthy, while maintaining good grades and working 20 hours a week, we have to be willing to get passed the procrastination bug. Here is the place  to get started. First, remind yourself that you are worthy of success and that if you procrastinate, you are your own barrier. The next step is just eating the large animal, one bite at a time. If you really don’t want to do homework, make one small goal that will ensure some progress. One step forward is still farther than standing still.

Self Confidence

Honestly, self confidence can play such a big role in achieving whatever you may be going for. I had a teacher in high school once tell me that procrastination can be a sign that you are afraid of failure. If we procrastinate and fail, we can say that we didn’t try our best and thats why we failed. ‘Its hard to think we may try hard and we may fail.What is important to know though is that you will be successful and you will be loved through it even if you hit a bumps in the road. Believe in yourself and your ability to be the best you!

Self Care

This has become a huge recommendation in general in the last few years. For your overall wellbeing, there are many things you can do to take care of yourself. Along with the forms of luxury self care like bubble baths, a new set of pajamas or a massage, basic self care is so important. Here are my forms of basic self care:

• At least eight hours of sleep
• Healthy food and drinks
• Naps
• Mental health days
• Phone calls with my family and partner.

Obviously this is a little different for everyone, but it is so important to recognize your limits when working part time and going attending college full time. Make sure to provide yourself with what you need to keep yourself healthy (physically and mentally) and motivated.

So now that you have some guidance I wish you luck on your college and work experience. Always remember to be patient with yourself and truly to care of yourself.

You can do this