Studying while Working, Is It Possible?

While most of student are luckily to have their focus on their study, some of them need to
cover their tuition by working even if they are still studying. The question would be, is it
possible to have studying and working at the same time? Then, how does it work? This writing
is based on my personal experience added by some of my colleagues with similar experience on
how to do both. What will be most explained bellow is about time management in different
cases, because it is the most trouble that the working-student deal with.

In case of mine and some of my classmate, let’s say student of S1 (Indonesian version of
Undergraduate Student program), I got schedule of class in every weekend (Saturday and
Sunday, then will be only Saturday, from the morning to the night, because of government
regulation change). That was because I choose weekend class so I thought that it would be right
to separate schedule of working and studying. Did it go right as expected? The answer is no. It
was because, still, there were tasks and assignments from lecturers that I had no choice but to
do the assignments in weekdays. So, the best thing i could do was to do it in the weekday’s
night. However, I had choice to do the assignment regularly, so it did not disturb my sleeping
time. Just say that I came home at 6 a.m. in the evening, I could rest for an hour and then did
my homework until 9 p.m., so if the assignment was not done at the day, I could continue the
work in the next day.

Different with me, another of my colleague needed to work in her last year in different program
as mine. She got the class and working schedule in weekdays. She got class schedule in the
morning and working time in the afternoon. This sounds very tiring, doesn’t it? It is because she
needed to have double focus, studying in the morning, which was tiring to her mind, and
working in the afternoon, which is tiring to her physics. What she did was reducing her sleeping
time for 1-2 hours, let’s say that she came home at 8 p.m., so she did her final paper (because it
was the case of last year of studying) until around 11 p.m., or she had a rest after she came
home, and woke up in the midnight to do the assignments. It sounds tiring than my case
doesn’t it? But it was her choice to make. The key was to be mentally strong.

Outside the daily studying and working routine, an important thing to do was taking a day
break. It was important to refresh mind and physics. This could be done by two things, going to
somewhere with fresh air or just taking a long day rest inside the house. I personally liked to go
to highland to get the fresh air. It might be physically tiring to go a little far away by bike, but
for me, it was worth that I could refresh my mind through inhaling clean oxygen.

So, does it possible being a working student? I can positively say, of course it is possible. In the
end, my colleagues and I have been graduated from each institution. The important things to
make a choice as working student are; be mentally and physically prepared, and don’t forget to
take a break.

Fauzan Novaldy Pratama