Balancing Work and Study on an MBA

If you’re looking to find out how you can balance studying for an MBA while also working a part-time job, we have put together this article filled with advice to help you stay on top of your responsibilities while not burning yourself out.

Many students work while studying to borrow as little as possible during their time at university, but it is vital that you keep your academic and work life in balance for both mental and physical health reasons, as well as ensuring your studies are not negatively impacted by your work. Here are some tips for you to follow while planning your time working and studying. 

Type of Work

Before getting a job, you should carefully consider what type of work it is that will fit around your studies. For the most part, postgraduate students tend to find evening and weekend jobs, in order to keep their weekdays free. 

Some MBA courses will have fewer compulsory contact hours than others. If this is the case, students may opt to work during the day and keep their evenings free for studying. Similarly, there is also the option for students with previous business experience to find freelance work while completing their course.

Scheduling

Draw up an academic study timetable that not only outlines which lectures you need to attend and when, but also allows you to allocate time to complete your assignments and revise for any potential exams and tests.

Once you have done this, you should be able to visualise how much spare time you will have left, which will provide you with a rough indication of how many hours you will be available to dedicate to any part-time work.

Prioritising

Your MBA should always be your priority, and if you’ve prepared in advance, you should never have too much work to do when a deadline is imminent. However, if you do find yourself in this position where you’re supposed to be in work when an exam is coming up (for example), then ring up a colleague and get them to cover your shift, or simply explain your predicament to your employer to see if you can adjust your working hours.

Organisation

It might not sound too important, but being organised is crucial to maintaining a healthy work and study life balance. Little things like ironing your work uniform in advance and making sure you have all of your equipment packed before you spend the day in the library will help make study days more efficient.

Switching Off

You can’t function either at work or at University if you don’t eat well and sleep well. If you’re tired and run into the ground, you are much more likely to make daft mistakes when studying or while doing your job that you’ll have to go back and correct at a later date. If you eat a healthy diet and get into regular sleeping patterns you’ll avoid making errors, and the time you would have spent correcting them can be put to more productive uses.

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