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Balancing School and Life

Balancing School and Life. Dr. Karina Shreffler Assistant Professor Human Development and Family Science Oklahoma State University. Defining school-life balance. Life Domains: School, Family, Friends, Romantic Relationship, Job, Activities, Church, etc…

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Balancing School and Life

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  1. Balancing School and Life Dr. Karina ShrefflerAssistant Professor Human Development and Family ScienceOklahoma State University

  2. Defining school-life balance • Life Domains: School, Family, Friends, Romantic Relationship, Job, Activities, Church, etc… • Role Pressure: Each domain requires unique responsibilities and pressures on your time and energy

  3. Defining school-life balance • School-life balance: ability to balance roles and responsibilities in school and other life domains • School-life conflict: Role pressures from school and other life domains are incompatible in some way such that one role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the other role • Each requires unique time and energy commitments

  4. Signs of lack of school-life balance1 • Feeling stressed out and completely exhausted by the end of the day. • Feeling sluggish and unable to make changes in your life to improve your life. • Feeling like you are falling behind and can’t ever catch up.

  5. Why is it important to strive for school-life balance? • Personal well-being • Higher quality relationships with peers and family • Greater school success and enjoyment

  6. Average annual earnings of workers 25 to 64 by educational attainment in 20002 • Not a high school graduate: $23,400 • High school graduate: $30,400 • Associate’s degree: $38,200 • Bachelor’s degree: $52,200 • Master’s degree: $62,300 • Professional degree: $109,600 • Doctoral degree: $89,400

  7. Group work • Discuss the following questions: • What are some issues that come up for you or others your age that make balancing school and life difficult? • How do you currently balance school and life? Do you have any strategies that might be useful to others?

  8. How do we find balance? • Being a good student doesn’t mean you have to drop everything else. You can earn good grades and have a healthy social life if you learn how to balance the two.

  9. Rules about school-life balance • It’s not one or the other: Think of balance as a continuum from a 10 being “perfect” balance” to a 1 meaning “total chaos.” • Techniques that work for some may not work for others. • Be clear about your personal, professional, and leisure goals. • Achieving school-life balance occurs in incremental steps.

  10. Ideas to achieving balance3 • Set goals and plans at the beginning of each school semester. • Plot out your schedule each week and follow it as closely as you can. • Find small gaps of time and highlight them: these are good times to do schoolwork, leaving larger gaps (such as on the weekend) free. • Set aside at least one large chunk of time each week for free time, such as one full weekend day.

  11. Ideas to achieving balance3 • Make sure that whenever you find yourself with small gaps of spare time that you use the time efficiently. • Include social time in your weekly plans; it is not realistic nor achievable to fill your schedule with school/work responsibilities only. • Try establishing rituals out of your transitions between school and family/social time, such as a walk. This helps some people compartmentalize the different life domains. • Encourage your friends to set schedules that match yours so you can coordinate your free time.

  12. Ideas to achieving balance1 • Write down your goals and plans for the short- and long-term. • Keep a journal. • When deciding to take on a new responsibility or activity, ask yourself: What’s the cost? Will this add to my life or create more stress? • Volunteer to help people less fortunate. • Cut out activities in your life that are not productive or are not priorities.

  13. Goals for school life balance: Achievement and Enjoyment4 • What we want out of life: Achievement and Enjoyment • We tend to understand the importance of achievement, but we often neglect enjoyment in our lives. • Strive daily for both achievement and enjoyment in your life. • For example, at school, work to achieve academic success but also participate in activities that you enjoy. • Establishing balance between our life domains such as school, family, peers, and activities will lead to a meaningful life.

  14. Individual work1 • Visualize your ideal life in 10 years. Make a list of the top 10 things you want to accomplish within the next 10 years. • What are your top 10 priorities for the next school year? • To help you reach these goals, finish the following statements. I need to: • Start doing… • Stop doing… • Continue doing… • Do more… • Do less… • Do differently…

  15. References • 1. Thomas J. Denham. Work life balance: Tips and Techniques. http://jobsearch.about.com/od/careeradvice/a/worklife.htm. Accessed June 10, 2009. • 2. Jennifer C. Day and Eric C. Newburger. 2002. The big payoff: Educational attainment and synthetic estimates of work-life earnings. Current Population Reports, 23-210. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau. • 3. Ashish Patel. Time management: Striking the Right Balance. http://www.examtips.co.cc/index.php?p=1_26 Accessed June 10, 2009. • 4. WorkLifeBalance.com. 2003. Work-life balance defined: What it really means. http://www.worklifebalance.com/worklifebalancedefined.html. Accessed June 10, 2009.

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