Element E-Zine

     Balancing Study and Leisure Time

Welcome to Element E-Zine! This week we will be discussing 3 ways to effectively balance your study with your leisure time. Most of us realize that to be effective in study or work (I use study as the default in this article, but interchange work if that’s appropriate for you!), we also have to take time off to ‘recoup’ or ‘re-energise’. But so often, the balance between study and leisure is skewed, either with too much study, or too much leisure time. Both can be extremely detrimental to our health, emotions and efforts.

So, what are three ways we can start to effectively balance our time?

Firstly, set leisure time aside and stick to it. Often we find ourselves taking leisure time during our designated study time, mainly due to us procrastinating from doing the work, and this leads to us never really getting the work done. If we give ourselves an adequate and realistic timeframe in which we can ‘forget’ about our study for a few hours and concentrate on fully relaxing, then it’s more likely that we will be able to sit down and work when we have to.

If you don’t give yourself a realistic timeframe to relax, for example setting aside only 1 or 2 hours a week for leisure time, then you will probably find yourself going way over the designated timeframe. If for example you had an hour or two a day to relax, as opposed to scheduling an hour or two a week, you would probably feel more balanced and more likely to stick to it, because it’s a more reasonable timeframe.

Everyone is different so our timetables will vary greatly. When I did Year 12, I made sure I finished any homework / assignments before 6pm so I had every night to just relax. I’m not a night-study person, so that worked well for me. If you are a night-time study person, then you will do best with something different. The key is, schedule in a realistic leisure timeframe, and don’t go over it or under it. Stick to it, and enjoy it!

Secondly, when you are in your designated relaxing time, don’t think about your studies or homework or assignments or anything stressful. Take the time to completely re-energize and balance yourself, so that you are in a better mind-frame to tackle the stress when it comes time to study.

Thirdly, split your study into smaller bite-sized bits, start early on assignments and revision, and then spread those smaller bits of study over a few days or weeks (whichever is appropriate) before the due date . That way, you get to pace yourself with the assignment or test revision, which frees your time up in a day to stick to your scheduled relax time, instead of having one or two days of constant work just to get the assignment in before the due date. This will only make you feel burnt out. So, for example, if you have a big assignment to do, to balance your time, split the assignment into do-able sections. Start early, and schedule to do each section per day, hour, or whatever timeframe is appropriate so that you schedule yourself to finish it a couple of days before the due date. Then, once you’ve completed that section for the day, throw it out of your mind and truly enjoy your set aside time to relax!

Email me and let me know your feedback!

Enjoy the week ahead,

Regards from Marryam