Image by Mike "Dakinewavamon" Kline
Being a student, you should by now have worked out the study/party balance. You know, the ‘If I study all week, I can party all weekend!’ mix. But now as a freelance student you need to add another ingredient into the mix. Your freelance work. Think of your life as a big cake - with any cake if you get the proportions wrong it’ll just taste horrible. In the case of work, it means something won’t rise. Don’t let it be work, study, or play!
Timetable It
The first thing you’ve got to do is work out how much free time you have and then, how much time you’ll need or want to work. Print out a timetable for the work – add your lectures and seminars in one colour. In another colour add the time for reading and writing assignments. Then add any other commitments such as sports or societies. Now it should be clear how much time you have spare to freelance. But…
Office Hours
You need playtime. After timetabling your life set your ‘office hours’ rigid and only work those hours! You may get the urge to work all your spare time but you must resist. Time to yourself for relaxation, socialising, or whatever else you like to do to chill out. It’s an essential part of the cake that is the uni/freelance/life balance. Cut it out at your peril and something will go wrong without down time. Believe me, you should have seen me when I was juggling my dissertation, writing eBooks and all my other modules – to say I was stressed really is a mild description.
Remember, the most important thing in your life as a student is to pass your degree with the best possible grade. Work is just a necessary evil to ensure you can eat and have a roof to sleep under whilst you do so. Plus you’ll just get stressed which is certainly not conducive to creativity or study.
You need to know when to clock out of work mode and say, “That’s it for today. I can finish this next time.” If work spills into the time you set aside for relaxation, or worse, study, then you need to increase your efficiency – chances are you will be doing one of two things:
- Wasting time on Facebook, YouTube or other distractions when you should be working.
- You are a perfectionist, wasting too much time making your work perfect when perfection may not always be required.
Check out our article on procrastination.
Workspace
Any freelancer will tell you, you need separate places to work and sleep. I realise this is going to be hard considering you are essentially adding another work element to the mix. So try not to work in your bedroom (there are only really two things that you can excel at in your bedroom. Sleep is one. You know what the other one is). Mixing work and rest (and pleasure, ahem!) in the same environment can cause the lines to blur, meaning mega procrastination. Why not do your work from uni, say, in the library, in a cafe or find a hotdesk somewhere. Trust me; it will make life so much easier.
Off Days
Sometimes you’ll have days when you just don’t feel like working, that’s fine as long as you can make up for it later. Sometimes you’re going to have to push yourself as it’s easy to keep telling yourself you can make up for it another day. Putting off deadlines will cause you to lose contracts, and as such, repeat work and referrals.
How do you balance work and university. Let us know in the comments.
