Ah, the elusive work/life balance. Or in some extreme cases the work/life/study balance! Juggling a normal human life with work is hard enough, but throw full-time tertiary study into the mix and you need almost Jedi levels of concentration and focus. Thankfully, there are a few tips and tricks to make things easier. We sat down with Swinburne e-Learning Advisor – and full-time mum of two – Sarah Wilson, to find out how students can better manage the work/life/study grind.PRIORITISE THE BIG THINGS In any given week, you’re going to have several things, maybe dozens of things, pulling on your time. Sarah says the best way to organise the chaos is to prioritise the big, immoveable stuff. The stuff that has to happen. ‘Imagine you’ve got a jar of rocks, and they’re all different sizes’ she says, ‘If you put the big ones in first, the little ones can slot around them. It works with life, too.’ Sarah recommends students block out their calendars early for things that can’t be moved: exam periods, assessment due dates, critical lectures. Keep these visible, then shuffle the rest of your life around them.

FIND YOUR OWN CADENCE A lot of students Sarah sees at Swinburne Online are actually returning to study. Maybe they’ve got kids, a full-time job, family commitments. The trick, if there is a trick, is finding a rhythm or cadence that works for you. ‘This is the great thing with Swinburne Online, you can pick and choose your own hours,’ Sarah says. ‘Some students like to study a bit each day, others save it up and smash it out on the weekend.’ Try and pick a rhythm that slots around your other life requirements – then stick to it. This is the hard part. Students tend get in trouble when they let that rhythm slip.DON’T PANIC The old Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy advice is relevant here: Don’t panic. At the end of the day, it’s a university course, not heart surgery. If you’re falling behind, or you’ve been sick and missed some classes, Sarah recommends speaking to your eLa (e-Learning Advisor) and getting an extension. ‘Swinburne Online offers a lot of flexibility and understanding,’ she says. ‘Us eLA's are in the same position too. We’re all juggling things. So if something unexpected comes up, you can always apply for an extension.’ Remember, there are literally people employed to make your uni life easier. Which brings us to…

LEAN ON THE SUPPORT Online study has fundamentally improved the entire uni experience. In the old days, if you needed help, you had to catch your lecturer in their office. And even then they’d probably lock the door and pretend no-one was home. But at Swinburne Online, there are tonnes of great students support services available. Every cohort gets a dedicated eLA (like Sarah), who’s free for advice, tips and study help. There are online discussion groups and student chats. Message boards. Counselling services. The works. ‘Remember, we want you to succeed,’ Sarah says. ‘We do whatever we can to help. eLA's don’t have office hours: we’re available 24/7 via email and usually respond within 24-48 hours.’MAKE CONNECTIONS Juggling work, life and study is hard, but it’s much less hard with friends. Connecting with other students in your cohort is a great idea for a couple of reasons. One, studies have shown that social support directly reduces stress. And two, you can bounce ideas off each other, get help with assignments, make sure you’re tracking key course dates, and join discussions on the Swinburne Online message boards. In other words, you don’t have to do this thing alone, and you shouldn’t do it alone. ‘Quite often students form study groups, or group chats,’ Sarah says. ‘It adds that personal, social element, which is really important.’

PROCRASTINATION IS THE ENEMY Benjamin Franklin once said, ‘Never leave until tomorrow that which can be done today.’ Obviously, you need to take this with a grain of salt: you could, in theory, not sleep and smash out all your assignments in a day. But that’s a quick route to burnout. Instead, just be disciplined when it comes to coursework and assessments. Map them out early on your calendar, then work slowly towards completion, chipping a little bit off each day. Constant progress is the key to work/life/study balance. Don’t punish Future You and leave everything until the night before. That’s a classic first year uni trap.

These useful tips were brought to you in partnership with our pals at Swinburne Online. If you want to study while being supported by a lovely team, check out the range of courses on offer at Swinburne Online including the Accounting course that Sarah assists with.