Students Feeling Overwhelmed? A Guide to School-Life Balance

By Steve Wiideman

Time management is a challenge every human is faced with, be it an employee with long hours and a desire for an exciting social life, or a student balancing multiple learning topics, part-time work, and the deep relationship needs we all have. Like any challenge, there are processes, workflows, and disciplines to alleviate the anxiety of school life, which we'll cover, along with common solutions from successful graduate students.

We'll also take a look at my own personal schedule breakdown, better task management, and a focus on Four Key Priorities that you can build a foundation upon. With any luck, you'll have more predictability, less stress and anxiety, and greater confidence that you'll succeed where so many others don't.

Common Solutions from Successful Graduates

Oprah Winfrey once said, "The truth is, success is a process—you can ask anybody who’s been successful." Not all children are taught to build regimens and routines; I sure wasn't.?

Our lives are a blissful chaos filled with special moments, experiences, and adrenaline-filled adventures. A deep-rooted fear of losing that chaos lies in our impulse to avoid too much structure; a fear of repetitiveness and the fear of missing out (as the cliche goes). This doesn't have to be the case. We can find balance in structure while leaving plenty of room for the great unknown.

You can spend hours on YouTube watching valedictorian speeches, but in the end, you'll likely find the following 10 themes:

1. Organization: Try tools like MotionApp to blend task management with calendaring.
2. Study habits: Block out time when you're most productive. I'm a morning person, so my phone is off 8 a.m. - 10 a.m. daily.?
3. Prioritization: Focus on things that require the most effort first.??
4. Time management: Break larger tasks into smaller ones. Thesis paper? Start with an outline.??
5. Self-care: You won't believe how much sleep, exercise, and healthy eating habits can improve your well-being.?
6. Seek help: If you're struggling, speak with your teacher, a tutor, or even a classmate. (I annoyed my teachers, but they never minded.)?
7. Take on risks: Worry less about delivering what you think the professor wants and more about how you can deliver something never seen before.?
8. Make connections: Try making meaningful connections with other students and professors; mine have stayed with me 20 years later.?
9. Review: Schedule time to review lessons and prepare in advance for tests; this can increase your grade by an entire letter.?
10. Start with the most difficult tasks: Similar to prioritization, getting the mentally challenging tasks out of the way.??

Here is the make-it-or-break-it moment: Review this list every day for the first 90 days to see how you've improved in each of these areas. Think of those viral "trick shot" videos. We know the creator tried 100 times or more to make that shot; it didn't magically happen on the first try.?

A Day in the Life: Personal Schedule Breakdown

Let's talk about my schedule for a moment. I run a small consulting business with eight employees. I moonlight as an instructor at two universities. I'm an author and update my textbook yearly. All while being a father to two girls and a husband to an incredible wife. As a business owner, I juggle hiring, firing, legal issues, finance, training, mentoring, quality assurance, and client satisfaction. I also travel often to speak at conferences and be a driving force behind new business.

[Takes a deep breath]

There are 24 hours in a day. 16 of these hours are "awake hours." Of those hours, blocking 3 to 4 hours out of the beginning of the day leaves you with a full 12 hours (50% of your day) for experiences, classes, and your wild and spontaneous life. Imagine these hours are like a piggy bank. Each day that you repeat that focus time you're putting money in. Each day you skip the hours, you're taking money out.?

That said, here is my schedule and how I've blocked the time on my calendar for the things that are most important to me and for hitting my health, business, and personal branding goals:

For you, these hours might include these "phone turned off" blocked time slots:

• A brisk 20-minute walk or bicycle ride
• Prep for classes (review assignments, chapter summaries, quiz prep)
• Personal development time, such as learning a new language or practicing a skill you want to master
• LinkedIn and Facebook group engagement (mastery and relationship building with experts in your field)

You might be wondering why I don't take weekends off, or at least Sundays. You have to do what works best for you. I've found that repeating the same morning routine everyday allows me to start naturally waking up at the same time without an alarm. Habits become disciplines, routines become more efficient, and what you do for yourself becomes a characteristic of who you are. This commitment to self limits stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, and self-worth, because you are choosing you over the needs of others.

Email Management and Task Organization

App notification dots make me crazy. My brain translates these dots into "I need to do" or "I need to check" tasks, making me feel like I'll never be caught up or, worse, a prisoner to my digital life. Aside from simply turning notifications off, a technique I've learned that works extremely well is having a Zero Inbox mentality. Here's how it works:

1. Archive all of your emails and social media messages (don't worry, you can search for them later).
2. When a new email (or social media message) comes in, take one of the following actions:
3. Setting up filters can make your inbox look ridiculously organized. I do like to subscribe to newsletters like most of us. When they skip the inbox, they are safely out of my "to do" mindset and ready for me whenever I'm ready for them. I get bills like anyone else, but they are rarely urgent and can also wait for me in my "Family Email" folder (yours might simply be "Bills"). I also like to travel and I have teaching responsibilities, neither of which are urgent, so they get filtered for me to review later in the day.

?

When it comes to task management, I have three different tools I use, each with plenty of alternatives you can find with a quick online search. Those tools include:

• MotionApp with Google Calendar: I love this tool because it automatically moves my tasks to the next available slot on my calendar until they’re marked Completed. You can set priority, time of day you'd like to work on a task, and due dates. My tasks might include putting slides together for a presentation, working on a report for a client, or recording a video for a module in one of the courses I teach.
• Monday.com: Not everything in my list of goals is assigned to me. I may have team members or even peers that I'm working on a project with. Monday allows you to collaborate and assign tasks within a project board that also has subtasks and even document storage. You can drag and drop tasks, and customize columns for simplicity or clarity.
• Microsoft To Do: Got things you'd like to do that don't necessarily have a deadline, a bucket list of travel destinations, or a wish list of things you'd like to own one day? To Do is ideal for these types of lists. My to-do lists are broken into groups, such as Self-Improvement, Work, Family, Entertainment, and Travel Dreams. For Work, I may have tools I'd like to try, a reading list, and maybe even a list of clients and employees for quick reference. I also keep track of accomplishments in a list for my end-of-year speech to the team.

Whichever you use, consider getting periodic feedback from a teacher, mentor, or even a peer so that your task organization continues to improve over time.

The Four Key Priorities

I've always had a love for physical fitness and personal development. However, I haven't given enough attention to rest or the foods I eat. That is, until I met a gentleman named Mike Warren who created a program called "Ditch the Dadbod," designed for business owners with prior military background. Mike repeatedly talked about these four areas of focus to live a happy and healthy life.

1. Food: The food you eat can alter your mood, affect your motivation to work, and cause brain fog or even drowsiness. A lifestyle change to help give you confidence, improve your appearance, and your overall energy level involves sticking to whole, unprocessed foods. Avoid sugars, breads, and especially fast food. Plain tea and unsweetened coffees are typically harmless.
2. Movement: You don't need an hour a day of exercise like my calendar above. However, getting your heart rate up with walking, bicycling, or aerobics can improve circulation, boost energy, and may even improve your overall mood. My personal routine includes 10 minutes of stretching, 20 minutes of weights (all muscle groups vs. a focus area), 10 minutes of plyometrics, 10 minutes of high intensity interval training (HIIT), and a 10-minute ice bath or cold shower.
3. Mindfulness: I used to jump from task to task, activity to activity, not resting until I was in bed staring at my phone up to the moment I fell asleep. I woke up groggy, anxious to see how my email and messages piled up overnight, and already contemplating how much I get accomplished in a day. This routine was not healthy whatsoever, and definitely not sustainable. Finding time to literally nothing can reset your mind, especially with some breathing exercises added in. Mindfulness can also be practiced through personal development, reading, journaling, or crafting.
4. Sleep: It's a fact: Your body recovers when you are sleeping. Typically 7-8 hours of sleep is enough for most people. When you get the right amount of sleep, your workouts are better, your focus is clearer, and you reduce the afternoon drowsiness that comes with sitting in a classroom or office. Try leaving the phone in another room to avoid the temptation of doomscrolling until you fall asleep. You can also draw inspiration from my own routine below.

These Four Key Points can be the foundation you need to bring out your best self. Develop these until they become fundamental to your lifestyle and you may amplify the success you see in school, work, and life.?

Deep Dive: Sleep Routine

I'll use myself as an example of how to develop better habits, specifically with sleep. As an entrepreneur, I slept on average 4-5 hours per night for nearly two decades. Sometimes I'd work a 24- or even 48-hour sprint, followed by 10-12 hours of sleep. However, you never really "catch up" on sleep, and I'd often find myself still feeling tired.?

As I started paying more attention to my rest, I'd set an alarm for 8 hours, but still find myself waking up before that time or not getting to bed early enough to be up in time to make it to the office. This wasn't working because every night I'd go to bed at a different time, making my biological clock out of whack.?

Then I finally did start getting to bed by 10 p.m. and up at 6, but the doomscrolling in bed, late dinners, or late-in-the-day caffeine fix all prevented me from being in deep sleep for as much as 2 hours.

So here is where I am with my sleep routine and how I score in the 90s on my Oura Ring (a sleep tracking ring and mobile app):

• 9:30 p.m. Google Home starts playing a commercial-free wind-down playlist on Spotify, phone goes on the charger in the kitchen.
• 9:35 p.m. I'm putting my clothes together for the next day and writing my "Big 3 Priorities" for tomorrow on a 3" x 5" card.
• 9:45 p.m. I'm journaling in bed, describing just the highlights, wins, and lessons learned, sometimes even a little pat on the back.
• 9:55 p.m. I use the military sleep method or tactical breathing to help myself fall asleep. If there's too much light, I wear a sleep mask.

Understandably, 10:00 p.m. to a college student is when the Uber arrives to take you to a party or nightclub. I get it. The idea here is to work toward building a routine and habit. I have off days, vacations, and conference social events that make me break this regimen more often than I'd like, but when it's possible, I jump right back in and within a few days, I'm in the 90s again on my Oura Ring scores.

Other mobile apps and wearables to try:

• Oura Ring, RingConn, or Amazfit Helio Ring
• Rise mobile app for natural melatonin timing
• Calm, Headspace, and Sleep Reset

Final Thoughts

Getting grounded on a daily routine centered around food, movement, mindfulness, and sleep can foster strength and focus, allowing you to develop skills or even master time management like a pro. Your goal shouldn't be perfection, but instead making small strides in nurturing organization (think Zero Inbox), study habits, work prioritization, seeking help, taking risks, and making deep connections with peers and teachers.?

Blocking out times on your calendar along with finding a task management system that works for you leaves the reminder work to technology, so you can enjoy the personal growth that will lead you to an improved school-life balance, with more energy and less anxiety. We are all a work in progress, but I hope sharing a bit of my personal journey and where it's led can help inspire your time management goals and allow you to enjoy the journey as much as I have.

Steve Wiideman , founder of Wiideman Consulting Group and author of "SEO Strategy & Skills," is a renowned expert in strategic planning for multi-location and franchise SEO campaigns. With over 22 years of experience, he has earned recognition as an Industry MVP and teaches SEO courses at multiple California universities. Currently, he focuses on developing educational programs while conducting research on emerging search technologies to advance the field of search engine optimization.