How I Balance Writing and Studying
It’s hard to stay consistent when exams are on the way.
Writing is hard. Even when that's all you’re doing.
Even when you’ve got time on your hands, coming up with new ideas to write about, staying consistent and motivated can be very challenging. Now imagine trying to write consistently whilst studying … Yep, it's a nightmare.
Here’s a bit of context…
I started writing about a year ago, a couple of months into the pandemic
At that time, I was 16, in my first year of Lycée (French high-school) called 2nd (for some reason the french decide to count backwards when you get to lycée). This year, which is the equivalent to 10th grade in the US, is widely considered the “nothing year”: no exams, fewer hours, and will have little impact on your future.
On top of the fact that I was in my “nothing year”, I was also learning from home, with teachers often forgetting to send homework, or simply giving up.
This meant that I had quite a bit of free time on my hands, so I had the bright idea to start a blog to make good use of that time. This blog, called The Detechtor has evolved over the last year into something of a tech blog, covering the latest innovations in the tech industry.
It was also around this time, that I discovered Medium, where not only could I republish articles from The Detechtor, but I could also write about my many other interests, whether that be music, politics, and now maybe writing itself. With the ability to build an audience organically, share my thoughts, and earn money, Medium was a no-brainer.
My Experience After a Year
Over the summer, I wrote pretty consistently, churning out some quite interesting articles (in my opinion) for both my blog and Medium: like this piece on the Hyperloop:
Or this article, completely unrelated to tech, about learning an instrument:
I was doing OK traffic-wise and was really enjoying researching and writing articles about things that interest me.
Then came 1ère (told you we were counting backwards).
The latest modifications to the French Baccalaureate mean that I now have exams over a two-year period. Most of my ones for this year were cancelled, but the most important of them, which is, of course, French, has been maintained.
With both a written and oral exam coming up in the next two weeks, to say I had my hands full would be an understatement. Since September, I have been studying in-depth over 15 Texts from multiple different authors which I will have to present during my oral exam, and have studied four different chapters on four different types of literature on which I will need to write a dissertation.
After a rocky start, I’ve stayed consistent.
Well, it’s definitely not been easy, with 1ère, as opposed to 2nd, being considered as the hardest year, as you still have tones to learn, along with a set of exams.
Towards the start of the year, it was definitely a shock having gone from a very easy last half of 2nd to now a very intensive 1ère, but after a little struggle, I got into a rhythm.
If you check out my blog, you’ll see I’ve been posting either once a week, or once every two weeks when things really get tough for the past several months.
How to Stay Consistent
Staying consistent is really hard, but there have been several things that have helped make it a little easier over the last few months.
Motivation
The first is motivation. I noticed that whenever I was inconsistent when it came to publishing an article, my traffic would take a huge hit. Seeing as my blog was fairly new, I couldn't afford to let my traffic slip, so this pushed me to try and work in the time to post once a week.
The amount of traffic doesn't have to be your only motivator, you could also set yourself a goal, like reaching 10 articles by the end of the month.
Once you have a goal in mind, you’ll find yourself more motivated to work.
Organisational System
Adopting an organisational system can save you a lot of time, I personally use Notion. If you haven't already heard of Notion, it calls itself the:
“All-in-one workspace. One tool for your whole team. Write, plan, and get organized”
In there, I have tasks, projects (articles to write, homework, exams) along with resources that help me save time when planning things to write. It has a reasonably steep learning curve, but can be a very useful tool, saving you time in the long run.
Time Blocking
Next is Time Blocking, which is the process of carving out time in the day for your various activities. It’s best to do this in a calendar (personally I use Google Calendar).
This activity helps you stick to your schedule, and allows to make sure you have the right balance between studies/writing.
I input all my classes, then things like lunch, dinner, and also add time for sports, reading, …
Then, once all that is added to your calendar, you can fit in writing at various points throughout the week.
Advanced Productivity
Sadly I can't help you with this one, as I myself have not reached a stage of advanced productivity!
I am aware, however, that there are specific productivity methods and tools out there, like building a second brain, or using the PARA method, by I have yet to implement these into my studies/ writing balance.
How I Allocate My Time
Now that you’ve got some tools to make more time for yourself, and stay consistent, let me share how I personally allocate my time.
Here’s an example of a typical school week from a few weeks back. Other than Monday afternoon which was exceptional, have school most of the time, so by calendar blocking, I can allocate time to the various things I need to do, like sports, homework and of course writing.
If you’re a student, the weekends will undoubtedly end up being the time when most writing gets done, but as you can see, I try and fit it into my week as well (and yes in France you get afternoons off).
And that's how I try to balance studying and writing, two things that are pretty essential to my life. I hope this will help any of you who want to try and write more, and give you some motivation to do so!
Check out my technology blog I mentioned in the article here. You can also sign up for its weekly newsletter to never miss an article!
I’ve also started accepting guest posts so if you have an interesting tech innovation you want to write about or cool tech products you want to review, submit your pitch here.
