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Work-Life Balance is Within Your Reach With These Five Tips

The achievement of work-life balance remains an elusive concept for many of today’s hard-working MBA students. Between demanding coursework, steep competition in and outside the classroom, and a challenging job market, it’s not exactly surprising that many b-school students struggle with successfully merging their personal, work and school lives. However, enrolling in business school doesn’t have to mean a two-year hiatus from the things you love in life. Let’s take a closer look at some key ways to enjoy the best of both worlds as an MBA student.

Oct 27, 2015
  • Student Tips
Work-Life Balance is Within Your Reach With These Five Tips

The achievement of work-life balance remains an elusive concept for many of today’s hard-working MBA students. Between demanding coursework, steep competition in and outside the classroom, and a challenging job market, it’s not exactly surprising that many b-school students struggle with successfully merging their personal, work and school lives. However, enrolling in business school doesn’t have to mean a two-year hiatus from the things you love in life. Let’s take a closer look at some key ways to enjoy the best of both worlds as an MBA student.

Two successful business men shaking hands with each other

1. Choose the Right Program

While EMBA’s used to play second fiddle to conventional MBA programs, they’ve increasingly gained repute by offering students access to high-quality business educations with no sacrifice of personal wellness or career detours.

When considering EMBA programs, look beyond the basics to identify schools which integrate family life into their ideologies, such as flexible course schedules, “family days,” and other programs and events which acknowledge outside commitments and responsibilities as part of the b-school experience.

Choosing the right location is also an important part of the equation. For many students, schools close to home minimize commuting times, allowing them to remain engaged in their communities. For students for whom attending b-school locally is not an option, online and distance programs offer appealing alternatives.

Portrait of young businesswoman with mobile

2. Maintain Open Lines of Communication

While attending b-school can be a life-changing experience, it doesn’t have to have a negative impact on your family or professional life in the short-term. Managing expectations -- both your own and others’ -- can play a vital role in avoiding conflict and promoting solidarity. There will be tough times along the way, along with periods during which you’ll be less available in the workplace and at home than you would like.

Discussing these challenges in advance and throughout your time in b-school can help you come up with effective coping strategies for juggling school, work, and personal commitments which meet the needs of all parties.

Not only that, but your family can also offer valuable partnership in helping you reach your academic goals -- but only if you let them in. Closed lines of communications, meanwhile, only leads to misunderstandings and feelings of ill will.

Beautiful college grad school student at the library studying fo

3. Commit to Achieve, Not Overachieve

Everyone has unique strengths and weakness. Expecting unilateral superiority is unrealistic -- particularly within the intensely competitive business school arena. Taking a moment to acknowledge areas where you shine and others where your capabilities are more limited can help you maintain a healthy perspective while avoiding feelings of failure simply for not measuring up to someone else’s strengths. The act of assessment is also an invaluable part of getting help when you need it in order to avoid falling further behind.

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4. Make Sleep A Priority

Unfortunately, sleep is a common casualty for many business school students studying EMBAs or MBAs ind themselves burning the candle at both ends. While you may think that late-night cramming session is just what you need to catch up in that soul-crushing intermediate accounting class, the truth is that lack of sleep can have serious consequences for students, including everything from cognitive decline to weight gain.

Doubting whether losing a few hours here and there can really hurt you? One study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania declares that “deficits in daytime performance due to sleep loss are experienced universally and associated with a significant social, financial, and human cost.” In other words: yes, it can.

Also falling into the critical category of study-boosting self-care? Making healthy food choices, staying adequately hydrated, and exercising. Remember: juggling business school with your personal life is a marathon not a sprint. The more fuel and endurance you have for the journey, the better prepared you’ll be to meet any obstacles that arise along the way.

asian businesswoman looking at work on laptop computer with satisfaction and stretching arms in the air.

5. Find Your Inner “Off” Switch

Because academia has no “open” and “closed” hours, school demands can trickle into all areas of your life. If you let them, that is. Not only can this lead to burnout, but it can also interfere with your personal relationships and work performance. Be sure to build in non-negotiable time for yourself as well as for your loved ones when studying for your EMBA or MBA programme.

Even allocating just a few hours each week to disconnect from school and work and reconnect with your loved ones can go a very long way -- both in terms of supporting your family life while at the same time offering restorative benefits to you personally. Keep technology out of this family time. Instead, enjoy family dinner or date night with your partner, take a walk through the neighborhood with your loved ones, or engage in other face-to-face, bonding activities.

Finding balancing as a business school student isn’t easy, but the short- and long-term benefits are profound. After all, these challenges aren’t going to disappear when you graduate and get a job, so learning to deal with them now offers vital preparation for what’s ahead while promoting holistic wellness in the here and now.

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Joanna Hughes

Author

Joanna worked in higher education administration for many years at a leading research institution before becoming a full-time freelance writer. She lives in the beautiful White Mountains region of New Hampshire with her family.

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