School life is always so stressful and can be a little complicated. Juggling classes, projects, assignments, friendships, and other extracurricular activities can be pretty demanding.
Can I be excellent in my academics and excel in my relationship with people?
Of course you can, you just need to learn how to balance school and friendship. Balancing school and friendship means managing your time effectively. How, you may ask?
There are three ways you can do this:
- Set aside specific study hours and create a schedule that allows for socializing.
- Communicate with your friends about your commitments and find activities that fit into your schedule.
- Remember to prioritize your schoolwork, but also make time for meaningful connections with your friends. It’s all about finding a healthy balance that works for you.
Ways to Balance School Life and Relationships
Do you want to know the secret to balancing your relationships with your academics, in a way that no one suffers? There are six ways you can do it. Keep reading to find out!
1. Set your Priorities
Know what you want.
Yes, you need to know what you want to achieve. Do you want to be studious and have few friends, or do you want to be very social? Or are you rather the kind of person that would love both, i.e., that is very studious and very social? You need to take know this.
After setting your priorities, you need to work towards it. If you are the kind of person who would like to be social and studious at the same time, then you need to invest your time in making friends, communicating, advancing as well as studying, and focusing on your studies.
2. Manage your time well
As earlier stated, balancing your academics with relationships involves time management skills. You have to create a schedule that includes specific blocks of time dedicated to schoolwork. For example, allocating a few hours each evening for studying and completing assignments. This way, you can focus on your academics without neglecting your friendships.
creating a schedule might not work for some people; in that case, you can have a daily or weekly to-do list. In your to-do list, you may include activities like checking up on friends or reading a particular topic. That way, you will always be ensuring that you are balancing both your academics and relationships.
3. Make Plans
Coordinate with your friends to plan activities ahead of time. This allows you to schedule socializing around your school commitments. For instance, you can plan to hang out on weekends, during breaks, after you’ve finished important tasks, or after finishing your examination. You can use any to-do app to assist you in scheduling activities. I personally recommend any.do.
4. Combine activities
Look for opportunities to combine schoolwork and socializing. For example, you can organize study groups with your friends, where you can work together on assignments or review for exams while enjoying each other’s company.
The easiest way to do these is to have study groups. You can make an interactive study group with your friends where you guys read and study together while having fun. Or you can join other study groups and make friends with them.
5. Communicate Openly
Communication is the ability to express yourself clearly to be understood. It also involves listening to and understanding the other party.
Talk to your friends about your academic responsibilities and the need to balance your time. It would help to be open about your priorities. They’ll likely understand and may even have similar challenges.
By openly communicating, you can find ways to support each other and plan activities that accommodate everyone’s schedules. And if you think they will not understand, you still need to explain to them. Make it known, and explain how you want to balance your social and academic life.
6. have friends whose priorities align with yours
It is very important you have people who understand and are willing to accept your priorities or, even better, have similar priorities. There is a saying that birds of a feather flock together. This means that two companions think together and act alike, because of the other’s company. You should be careful when choosing friends. It should be someone who understands you and vice-versa, someone who is willing to communicate when there are disagreements.
For instance, if you want to have a relationship with God or you want to study, your friends need to understand that you have personal time for God or you have a specific time to study. And of course, this goes both ways, just like they understand your priority, you will also have to understand theirs.
Remember, finding the right balance will require some trial and error. It’s important to be flexible, adaptable, and willing to make adjustments when necessary.
While some may understand the importance of friendships, others may not. Let’s move on to talk about the benefits of friendships.
Benefits Of Friendships
1. Networking and socializing
Networking means connection. This term refers to how your social strata can help you get well-connected to other important individuals. This is a very good reason why you should have a good relationship with people. You might need help with something and if you are well-connected, your friends, peers or even acquaintances could be of help.
2. To get favour and help
Networking talks about being well-connected. This, on the other hand, is having people who would go the extra mile to help you whenever you need help. Not only do they help you, they also start favoring you.
This means they start recommending you for job positions, they start showing you mercy. The things they would not do for other people, they go the extra mile to do it for you.
This is very important because, at some point in our lives, we would need help. Having individuals who can help you in time of need is of grave importance
3. Having Dependable People in your space
The term people in your space means people you let around you or those you surround yourself with. It means having to depend on or trust certain individuals( friends).
Having good relationships with people makes you have trustworthy and dependable people in your space. Note that these people can go as far as make or mar you. They can also affect you mentally and emotionally making you dependent on them.
Therefore you must be careful of the kind of people you let in your space. While there are good benefits of making friends, there can also be disadvantages if you are not careful about the people you let in your space.
That’s it guys! I hope you nurturing the relationships in your life, while ensuring that your academics does not suffer as a result.
