Balancing Social Life and Academics

As a student, it is your top priority to maintain and keep your grades as high as you possibly can. 

However, it is also important to keep a healthy social life as human beings are social creatures and yearn for contact with other human beings as well.

One of the most common struggles amongst students during this day and age is keeping balance between their studies and their social life. 

The stigma goes that students who are good in studies often have little to no social life, preferring to spend their days holed up in their rooms or in libraries preparing for the next exam. 

While the other side of the coin suggests that those students who go out with their friends a lot have little time to study and thus have trouble during classes or have grades ranging from average to below average.

However, there are occurrences of naturally gifted individuals who seem to magically balance between having fun, going out, and socializing; and studying and getting good grades. 

And many students admire those individuals and hope to be someone who can balance between studies and social life just like them.

These individuals may be gifted naturally, but you can learn to balance between studies and social life just as well as they do. 

By following guidelines, keeping up with schedules, and keeping a positive outlook in life, one can take a step forward towards getting better at balancing social life and their studies. 

Here are a few ways that can help you balance academics and your social life:

#1 Be Aware That Balance Is Needed

A common error that most students make is failing to realize that too much of something is never healthy. 

Just as how too much water can flood and wither the flower, too much time spent studying or going out to socialize and party is never healthy for you. 

It could lead to either academic fatigue and stress build up due to too much time spent studying vigorously or a lower G.P.A. due to going out too much.

This is not to say that we are discouraging you from studying and going out, it is only to point out that there needs to be balance between the two. 

Have your weekdays to your studies and academics, and take a break every weekend by going out with friends to relieve stress and avoid academic burnout. 

Balance is always needed in all that we do and should never be overlooked as a chessboard with all black tiles would just be a black block of wood, while a chessboard with all white tiles can be akin to a piece of paper.

#2 Manage Your Time Properly

One of the most important ways to constantly keep balance between academics and social life is by preparing a time table for your activities. 

Learn to manage your time between studying and going out with friends by setting specific time and dates to do these activities.

You can start by having a written schedule of whenever you have free time and deciding if you want to spend that time by studying or getting together with your friends. 

If you decide to spend your time studying, divide that time and prioritize subjects or topics which you have trouble with and always leave 5-10 minutes for breaks ever now and then. 

If you happen to choose going out with our friends, then make sure to set a limit for you to still have time to do your homework or any academic activity given by your school.

You also need to make sure to keep your socializing as close to weekends as possible. 

By doing so you essentially set up a unique rhythm which tells you to study and do academic activities during weekends and go out with your friends during weekends, given that you have nothing important to do.

#3 Stick To Your Schedule

What good is having a schedule if you are not going to stick with it? 

It is often very hard to resist temptations and invites from friends when you have just started out keeping balance but once you get through the first few weeks, then it will be much easier to say “no”.

Always remember that you are always free to say no to invites from friends. 

This shows you have conviction to follow your schedule and you also show that your time is much more valuable than they expected. 

Plus, if you leave a little anticipation for when you get out and socialize then it will be all the more enjoyable when you finally get to go out with your friends.

Having discipline within yourself by sticking with your schedule also prepares you for future any future endeavour you may pursue as a good foundation is often the key to a building standing tall and proud even after decades of use.

#4 Set Goals

If you still have trouble getting motivated to spend your weekdays at home and studying, then it would be advisable to set goals for you to reach. 

Simple yet difficult to reach goals such as getting a perfect score during your midterms or having a passing grade in your calculus classes can go a long way to boost your morale and keep your spirits high. 

This compels you to continue with your routine to achieve even more goals which you have set for yourself.

However, it would be advisable to keep your goals within arm’s reach and not a shot to the moon. 

As a goal set too high can often tend to be too tiring and may lead to academic burnout, not to mention the despair you may feel if you failed at achieving the goal you have worked so hard to achieve. 

Keep your goals simple at the beginning and let them grow continuously as you achieve more and more every time.

Also, why not take some time to listen to one of the most influential speaks Jim Rohn about the essentials of setting goals?

#5 Facilitate A Study Group

Want to hit two birds with one stone? 

Then preparing a study group is just what you need. 

Having a study group allows you to study while simultaneously spend time with your friends. 

This might be the most obvious solution to your troubling problem.

However, there needs to be a stickler to the rules, and that must be you. 

Although you are spending time with your friends, you should still prioritize studying as that is the original goal of a study group. 

Also keep in mind to limit the size of your group to 2 to 4 persons as any more people involved can raise the risk of the group’s goal to stray and distract every member of the group, essentially making the study group null and void and become a get together of sorts.

#6 Plan Your Weekends

A soldier must be prepared for every battle which may come his way. This holds true for you as well. 

Always keep a schedule of what you are planning to do during your weekends to limit any unnecessary usage of your time. 

You may never know when a surprise invitation may arise while you still have schoolwork to finish

Yes, weekends are supposed to be for socializing. 

However, just mindlessly going out with no clear plan on what to do will just waste your time and limit you from being productive. 

Plan with your friends ahead of time so that you know what you will do, where you will do it, and what time you will do it.

An unplanned weekend may give rise to a situation where none of your friends are available and you would be left with nothing to do. 

The time you wasted getting ready and travelling could have been used better to finish any unfinished work or homework you had and save you the time for when you will next go out.

#7 Maintain Your Health

A healthy body goes a long way to help you keep balance between academic excellence and social interactions. 

Taking care of one’s health is also of top priority when balancing academics and social life.

Imagine being bed ridden due to an illness for 3 days. 

Not only are you unable to participate in class, but you also miss out on any possible chance to socialize and go out with your friends. 

Disregarding your health and getting sick is like getting hit by two birds while holding a stone.

Exercise on a regular basis to keep your physique in check. 

Eat the adequate amount of nutrients daily to supply you with energy to do your tasks properly. 

And never forget to hydrate yourself regularly to prevent dehydration and other illnesses that may strike you.

#8 Have A Positive Attitude

Of course, none of these methods would work if you have a negative attitude towards balance and is a member of the procrastination squad. 

If you have little to no will to balance your academics and your social life, then you are just going to end up disappointed. 

Keep on striving and working hard to balance your academics and social life and it will lead to great things. 

You cannot sow the seeds you never plan to plant, and you will never achieve balance if you haven’t even decided to start.

Get a Home Tutor

One of the best ways to save time from academics to allocate to socializing is getting a home tutor to help aid your studies. 

A home tutor can save you the effort of understanding a topic from square one and will also guide you to master topics you have already learned. 

Saving you time and effort which you can allocate to socializing if you ever feel like you’ve been spending too much time ding academics.

Here at FamilyTutor, as leading home tuition in Singapore we offer thousands of skilled and highly capable home tutors who can teach from pre-school up to university level students. 

Our rates are at fairly reasonable and we ensure quality home tutors to suit your needs and save you time to be used for socializing.

Final Thoughts

So, there you have it. These are only some of the ways to balance a student’s social life and academics. 

We have to remember that learning is not just done in the classroom. 

Students should also be given the time to socialize and use a part of their time with their peers.

Carelle

Carelle

Carelle is a teacher who has been through the ups and downs of the teacher and learner life. She wishes for every learner to gain educational satisfaction that will help embody the people they want to be in the future.

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