How to Balance Being a Full-Time College Student with An Internship.
After several weeks under my belt of balancing being a full-time college student with my part-time internship work at Skillsoft, I finally feel as though I’ve gotten into more of a routine. At first, this took some trial and error to become comfortable with how to prioritize my workload for school, attend all my classes, and deliver productive work for my internship.
For me personally, I work about ten hours per week as an intern. As for my role as a full-time student, I currently take four classes, have an on-campus job where I have the role of a “learning associate,” in which I teach alongside a professor, and am an active member of three clubs on campus. What comes with all of this is a busy class schedule and workload, many emails to manage and meetings to attend, all with the pressure of doing all of these tasks well. All of this combined felt pretty daunting to me at first, as I anticipated feeling like I was going to constantly be pulled in several different directions of things that were all demanding my attention. However, what I have found are a lot of useful tips that can combat feeling overwhelmed and help to figure out where to start and what to prioritize.
- Block off time in your calendar.
The most useful lesson I have gained since starting my internship with Skillsoft is how to utilize setting aside time for certain tasks by blocking off portions of my calendar. Whether this be for an assignment for a class, a task or project assigned by your manager for your internship, or just answering emails, physically blocking off time within Teams or Outlook can be super helpful. Only working ten hours a week as an intern has made it difficult for me to get into the groove with my work since I am working at such sporadic times. Furthermore, I am used to working 40 hours a week like I did in the summer, so this has been a huge adjustment for me in terms of the periods of time I spend on work. To combat this issue, I have found that blocking off specific time in my calendar where I will only be focused on one thing, has allowed me to be more productive in the little time I have.
2. Allow yourself flexibility.
Allow yourself to have some flexibility from week to week in your work schedule, because as a college student, things are bound to come up. As I adjusted to this new and busy schedule while entering my final year of school, I have learned along the way that at times things will come up spur of a moment and I will need to adjust my plans. Whether this be something coming up unexpectedly for a class needing your immediate attention, or a class being cancelled last minute, allow yourself the freedom to adapt to these changes and take advantage of any extra time you are given.
3. Stay in the know.
Something I struggle with is feeling like I don’t know much about what’s going on inside the company due to a lack of meetings and communication with others. It’s rare for the interns to ever all be online at the same time, so we are in far less communication than we were over the summer. I was also used to participating in weekly meetings with my team, having a stand-up meeting with my manager every day, and having various meetings across the organization in larger marketing team meetings. Because of this, I have realized the importance of checking in on people that I was used to talking with over the summer, as well as asking questions.
I have always been someone that enjoys taking long walks in my free time or when I feel like I need a break from everything. If I’m walking by myself, I am more than likely listening to a podcast. Something I have been utilizing this fall is listening to Skillsoft’s podcast, The Edge, to help me feel more acclimated with work. Listening to these episodes has been effective for me in setting up a good environment before I start my work for the day. It has been an adjustment to not be around anyone doing the same kind of work as me or having conversations with coworkers to the extent that I did over the summer, and I find that staying in the know and utilizing our podcast as well as Percipio has been a big help.
4. It’s ok to ask for time off.
It’s better to put forth your best effort on every task and project you take on, than it is to give half the effort that you could have if you had the time. For instance, next week I’m traveling out of the country for a wedding. While I’m only missing a couple of days for my classes, I knew that the time I’ll have in the week before traveling is extremely limited. For that reason, I anticipating it being better for me and my manager’s sake to spend this time making sure all of my schoolwork is squared away and for me to communicate plans with my professors. On another note, it is important to take a step back at times and enjoy whatever it is you have going on socially. I know this will be an amazing experience for me to spend with my family, and it’s better to not have the stress of work in the back of your mind when taking on life experiences such as this. And while a family wedding in Ireland may be an extreme example, no matter what it is, life experiences like this only come around so often and your manager/coworkers will understand! You’re only a college student once, make sure to enjoy this precious time that you have.
5. Set goals for yourself.
At the beginning of every week, set goals for yourself of what you want to get done based on the priorities you have for the week ahead. Use and keep a planner to track these goals and record your accomplishments. For me, the simple act of physically crossing something off that I got done is extremely rewarding. Set aside specific days and times that you will designate to your internship work, schoolwork, and any other commitment you have on a weekly basis. Create a list on Sunday night or Monday morning of everything you want to accomplish in the week to come.
Figuring out how to best manage a busy schedule, with many different priorities is not easy. It can take a lot of trial and error until you find yourself in the right groove. However, following along with tips such as these has made the world of a difference for me, and I highly encourage trying them out for yourself or taking the time to find out what this might look like for you.
