Before coming to London, I had never really had to balance work and school. In high school, I had a job only working six to seven hours a week at my synagogue’s religious school teaching a class. I was on the school’s dance team which took up ten to fifteen hours a week after school ended, but It was only for a couple hours in the evening so there was still time to do work right after school. Then, when I got to college, I had a more flexible schedule as I would end classes by 12:30pm or not have class on Tuesday, allowing me to babysit and have it not interfere with classwork.

When I came to London, I thought, “oh, this will be fine. 20 hours a week of my internship plus classes won’t be that bad, I’ll still have time to do stuff.”

My days were long, being out of the flat from 8:30am to 6:30pm every day, and all I wanted to do when I came back from my internship or class was eat dinner and watch some Netflix to unwind a bit. I learned quickly that my routine in the evening needed to change because I still needed to get something else done – schoolwork!

I figured out a new schedule for myself to stick to so I could get my classwork done and still have time at night to unwind and after a long day. In between my classes, I had about an hour to eat lunch and hang out, but I decided that I would try to get at least some of my assignments done during that time since I was still in “class mode” and could ask friends in my classes about them. This lightened my load for when I returned to the flat in the evening.

I also needed to take care of myself – something I like to do is go on walks and workout and since most of the time when I was coming back to the flat it was dark out, walks were off the table for my own safety. As someone who gets antsy sitting all day, I still needed to release this energy and started packing my bag on the days of my internship to go to the gym after work at the hotel. I was VERY lucky to be able to use the gym at my internship when I wasn’t working, so I decided to take advantage of this and go to the gym as much as possible. I found I was able to focus much better after working out since my brain got to take a break. I started to feel so much better now that I could be active after sitting all day!

For students going abroad and balancing a work/class schedule, I suggest making a schedule/routine as soon as possible and stick to it! Keeping that routine during the week will help you not scramble last minute to figure out what to prioritize.

Find things that help you release stress – for me, it’s working out and going on walks. I needed that time during the week to have me time and let my brain recharge. When I got stressed with assignments adding up during certain weeks, I looked forward to my internship where I had a change in pace and topic, as well as going to the gym since it let me release some of that stress!