Sophomore Danielle Mucci does homework in Centro.
A stressful part of college, aside from the exams, is maintaining a healthy work, life and school balance. This is important for many college students to help fight stress.
First-year student and psychology major Mere Priddy was working four days a week at Starbucks but dropped to three days a week because he had no time for things that he enjoyed.
“I’m a part of BUKnighted, but I haven’t really gone to anything yet because of work,” he said.
Priddy said he feels as if he doesn’t have enough time in a day for extra activities among school, work, and responsibilities. His hobbies are being with his cat and playing Nintendo Switch when has the time.
“I feel like I do not have time for anything, but that’s also why I went down in hours at work because working the four days basically took up everything but one day in my week,” he said.
When Priddy is feeling stressed, he said he likes to be with his brother or animals. “My best way of destressing is probably confiding in my brother and animals. I find it extremely calming to just pet an animal. They’re just there, and they’re not saying anything, but it’s just comforting to have something,” he said.
Priddy said he had advice for any student trying to juggle work, school and life. “I think the most important thing is that you are more important than school or work because if you are not there for you, then you can’t be there for any other things,” he said.
Senior Breanna McWhorter is no stranger to a busy lifestyle. Breanna is a human resources and development intern at Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development. She works 20 hours a week and stays on top of things by keeping a checklist on her iPhone’s Notes app.
“I use the Notes app on my iPhone and I kind of, they have like a little checkbox thingy…and then I write down some dates…I put it in order by what’s most important,” she said.
McWhorter is involved in organizations on campus such as the American Marketing Association and field hockey. She also enjoys working out to reduce her stress and manages to accomplish so much in a day by starting at 5 a.m.
“If I didn’t work out in the morning, I think it would be more stressful just because I think running is a good stress reliever for me…if I didn’t wake up at 5 a.m. to start my day then I would probably feel stressed,” she said.
Her advice for students struggling to balance work, school and life is to do something daily to relieve stress. She said, “Like for me, that’s running and listening to a podcast in the morning, and if that means you have to get up early then, you’re just going to have to do it. So, just do something that’s going to relieve your stress like reading for 10 minutes a day.”
Senior Leydis Acosta has a hectic schedule but said she is thankful to have a job that allows her flexibility. “I do think I have time [in a day], but it’s all thanks to the fact that where I work at, they give me the flexibility of adjusting my hours to my schoolwork. I don’t think I’d have time if they didn’t do that,” she said.
Acosta works 15 hours a week at Kentucky Farm Bureau and keeps up with everything in her day by screenshotting a picture of her planner.
“That’s the most accessible way so I don’t always have to be going through my backpack or my purse,” she said. “I have a picture of a schedule that I’ve done so I always look at it to make sure I’m within my timeframe of getting to places.”
When things get stressful, Acosta said she chooses to be with family and friends. “I go out to eat with friends and have dinner with my family. Some weekends we do a get-together,” she said.
If a student is struggling to balance everything, Acosta recommends keeping a schedule. She said, “Definitely keep a schedule and don’t overdo yourself. Like, if it doesn’t fit in a timeframe, then don’t just take on more things. Try to manage the more important things first. Always have time for yourself. You need time to destress.”
Bellarmine’s industrial organization psychologist and psychology professor Dr. Courtney Keim said she can tell when students are overwhelmed.
“If a student is having difficulty staying awake in class, you know, that tells me that they’re not getting enough sleep,” Keim said. “Why are they not getting enough sleep? Well, it may be because their work schedule doesn’t allow them to. It may be that they’re an athlete and their practice schedule doesn’t allow them to. Generally, students who are feeling stressed they miss assignments, they miss class, and they fall behind. You can usually see it in their behavior and in their actions.”
Keim had advice on how students can maintain their schedule better. “There’s only so much we can control as human beings. Focus on the things you can control and maybe try to change things that can make for a better schedule. The things you can’t control, you have to cope with that.”
When she was in school, Keim said she would keep a planner and color code everything. This helped her stay on top of things. “The biggest piece of advice that I would have is time management. You have to have a schedule and manage it,” Keim said.
She said students need to schedule time for fun. “You need to make sure you have the time in your schedule to be with your friends and to get that social connection and interaction,” Keim said. “You have to make time for that self-care and time for you to be able to reward yourself in whatever way makes sense to you.”
Keim said that people are not meant to remember everything. “Our human brains are not equipped to be able to accurately recall everything you need to remember on a given day. That’s why you have to have it written down,” she said. She suggests students keep a to-do list so they have time to do things that they need to do and so that they can remember to do them.
Another thing Keim suggest students do is to space things out. “The science of psychology says that one of the things that’s really critical to learning is spacing things out. So overlearning is important and spacing things out. You don’t want to study for an exam right before an exam. You want to have multiple times to study for you to be able to retain and learn information.”
She said staying organized is key. “It’s about being organized and utilizing the time that you have effectively,” she said.
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