FQ Guide To Part Time Work
Part Three: Managing Your Time
This section of our guide advises on your first week of work, and how to balance your studies alongside it. If you haven't found work yet and would like some advice on writing your CV or your job interview, check out part one here and find part two here.
The first day is the most daunting, and it is perfectly natural to feel nervous before your shift. Strengthening your relationship with your employer and colleagues can help alieviate these worries and make you feel more at home on the team.
With that in mind:
We mentioned soft skills in our previous sections. These, otherwise known as transferable skills, are strengths that are immensely useful throughout your career and education, whatever it is you decide to do.
Time Management
This means being able to:
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Plan Ahead
Planning your week or your month in advance can help you avoid pitfalls such as missing deadlines or being too tired for work.
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Prioritize
Organising your revision, chores, work and leisure time into tiers of importance is a popular method used by those with busy lifestyles.
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Communicate
Communicating with your employer and colleagues in advance means you are able to manage your shift pattern more effectively. Your teachers may be able to help you balance your time if you communication with them when you start a job.
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Create a Schedule
Keeping to a schedule can help you focus when you are working or studying and leave you able to enjoy your free time more. There are many apps and methods of creating a schedule: Excel, Outlook Calendar, or just a diary and a pen.
Feedback
Being able to balance your time efficiently will help you throughout your life, so learn strategies and methods early on so that they stick with you further down the line.
The most important part of managing your time is that you allow your those breaks. In one of our blogs, Medical student Kieran discusses the challenge of balancing intensive placements and studies.
"I think one of the biggest challenges is knowing when to stop to avoid burnout and do things like sports or hobbies that allow you to unwind and do things outside medicine."
Remember, if you communicate with your employer from the start and emphasize that studying is your priority then they will understand when you need to take breaks and avoid that dreaded "burnout" that Kieran is talking about.
Learning how to balance these aspects of life while you're under 18 will equip you with important tools for the future; higher education and apprenticeships will feel infinitely more manageable.
That draws a close to our guide to part-time work. We hope you have found it helpful.