It’s all about Balance: Work/School/Life Balance

Series 1: Sharing Our Stories: Advice from the NMRC Youth Council

The NMRC Youth Advisory Council developed the Youth Insight Advice Colum to provide young people a platform to share their experiences and insights on mentoring. This advice column creates an opportunity for peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing and a space for offering recommendations for mentees, mentors, and practitioners from the youth. By leveraging the experiences and perspectives of young people, the NMRC Youth Advisory Council seeks to promote a culture of mentorship that is informed, inclusive, and responsive to the needs and aspirations of young people.

If you’re interested in reading more blogs in this series or accessing additional resources created by young people, click here.

How do you implement self-care for a healthy school/work/life balance?

a. When possible, I make an effort to schedule the things I need to do around my own personal preferences instead of what I think would save the most time etc. Reminding myself that my body is not a machine in auto mode. I’ve also been making it a point to have a couple of seconds to myself to reflect on how a certain environment or activity made me feel. Understanding and managing my own thoughts and emotions has greatly helped when it comes to reinforcing that balancing act in life. To me, self-care isn’t a timed moment but instead many small decisions with the shared goal of my overall health and well-being. – Ivette

b. I think having a healthy work- life balance starts with establishing a realistic schedule. Without consciously making time for self-care, I find it is very easy for me to overcrowd my days with a heavy workload so there is no time for me. When I make a clear schedule, with realistic goals of what I can accomplish in a given day, it gives me the opportunity to take some time off without the stress of the unfinished work, since I know I have a set plan in place.  – Rachel

c. The need for a healthy balance is crucial in today’s time. Incorporating self care, in the many forms there are essential to create a balance that is healthy for you! The most important part of self care is prioritization. It is important to prioritize and set boundaries in schoolwork/work timings, and it is necessary knowing when to stop and practice self care. For this, I usually create a daily, monthly, and weekly planner. This creates a clear schedule of what I need to do and when, so I know when I have timing for my self care. Self care can be a multitude of things and these should be activities you enjoy and release stress. Practicing mindfulness activities can also be helpful, meditation, journaling, and other activities can be helpful to reduce stress around daily life! It is important to avoid unnecessary tasks that overwhelm or take massive amounts of energy, and if you do have a big task at hand, scheduling and creating a healthy schedule where each day the tasks are manageable, it can lead to a healthier work/life balance. Seeking activities that promote fulfillment and rejuvenation can help increase your well-being and reduce your stress! For me these activities are like skiing, biking and cooking! -Aaryan

What advice would you give other young people who may be struggling with school, work, personal and home challenges?

a. The most crucial step is to lay out the exact challenges you feel like you are struggling with. Whether it’s a multitude of things or not, the feeling of being overwhelmed can quickly consume you and deter you from taking the steps needed to move forward. After you have a visual map layout of the challenges you’re facing, you can plan how to tackle them one by one. I find that taking more of a logical, strategic point of view helps you feel like you have some grip or traction with all the racing things going on. This way, you allow yourself to feel and respond and reach out for what you need in a healthy manner. – Ivette

b. One of the best things I did for myself throughout my own struggles was taking a step back. By doing this reflection, I took a critical look at my situation and sought help in areas where I needed it. While many issues do not have simple solutions, it is sometimes vitally important to be oneself’s most reliable advocate. I was able to find resources through my college that best suited my needs and, through this, alleviated a lot of personal concerns I was facing. By simply reaching out to people, I was able to be redirected to those who knew how to help me. These interactions were refreshing reminders that many people out there have the means and desire to help. Sometimes, you just have to look for them! – Kyndall

c. The first thing to do is weigh your options. I use a digital journal to keep track of all my commitments and organize my priorities. From there, I rearrange my tasks based on deadlines and priority. By keeping organized, you better understand your own limits and what you truly value. The next piece of advice is to ask for help, everyone has limited bandwidth, and it’s perfectly normal to need help. –Wilson

d. Facing difficulties in important facets of life is no easy thing to deal with, though the advantage is that it is natural, and one is never alone within these challenges. Though common advice, it is extremely necessary to seek support from positive people around you. This could be family, friends, teachers, basically whoever you can approach in a comfortable state. Additionally, it is important to break things down into manageable and small steps on a day to day basis when tasks get overwhelming. Practicing this is important to building strategies to cope with any kinds of difficulties you may encounter. This leads into the concept of resilience, a prominent thing to do is to understand resilience for facing these challenges. When grappling with overwhelming tasks, understanding and reflecting on how you have overcome these in the past is very helpful when encountering difficulties the next time. For myself, academic challenges are the most common, and new ones pop up every school year. For example this year, I took AP Physics, and struggled massively on my first tests, though challenging as a student, I learned that I needed to attack physics in new ways, like studying outside of class, and consistently mastering concepts. Once I got this down, the stress of the class significantly went down and created a successful experience! It is also extremely important to be kind and show compassion towards yourself, in the face of challenges, it is easy to put blame on yourself, but it is necessary to keep backlash towards yourself to a minimum as it will make the process easier! By seeking support, practicing self-care, setting realistic goals, and cultivating resilience, you can overcome obstacles and thrive in various aspects of your life. And remember there is always light at the end of the tunnel! – Aaryan