Work, Leisure and Friends at Uni. How Do You Manage?3 min read

Is it possible to have a balance of work, leisure and friends at uni?

You’ve been bombarded with assignments, you need to go to a society meeting or training session and you have a friend’s birthday party coming up soon.

You barely have any free time and when you do, you probably use it to call your family or to do some catch-up work. This is a situation that you will inevitably experience during your time at university.

With so much happening, is it possible to truly find a balance between work, leisure and friends at university?

While it is difficult to constantly maintain a balance between these three aspects, it is still possible to achieve this balance as the key to it is prioritising and acting early.

As you spend time at uni, you might sometimes find yourself prioritising your work above your leisure and friends.

You may feel that your essay, report or presentation is draining you because you have been laboriously and endlessly working on it even though you want to be desperately doing something more fun; however, you should trust yourself in focusing on and finishing your work first.

By first focusing on your work (with occasional breaks in between), you are likely to finish it early and then be in a position where you can attend your society meeting, training session or friend’s birthday party.

Despite this approach though, it is understandably not always this simple or easy as you can get so much work that it does not give you enough time to do other things.

In this case, just simply tell your fellow society members or coach a few days early that you cannot attend the upcoming society meeting or training session because the work you received is an important part of your degree grade. They will understand because, after all, they are or were in your position too.

As for missing your friend’s birthday party, it is the same procedure. Nevertheless, you should always tell your friend in advance about your future non-attendance at their birthday party, give them a sincere apology and then arrange another day to meet them (with a good present) to make up for your absence.

Your friend will always be there for you during your best, worst and weirdest times of uni, so make sure that you do everything you can to stay in contact with them.

On the whole, as contradictory as it sounds, you sometimes have to sacrifice one aspect in order to achieve a balance.

By trying to simultaneously focus on all three aspects, you risk spreading yourself too thin and might mentally and physically tire yourself in the process.

However, by giving up one aspect and then later compensating for it, you can manage your time better as you know what you need to currently concentrate on and what you need to give up and later make up for.

So, remember to not focus too much on one aspect, but also to not simultaneously focus on all of them otherwise you will mentally and physically exhaust yourself.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash