How to Balance Online College Studies with Work and/or Family Demands - Essay Example

Lecturer: Presentation: Introduction The need for education is rising as the labor market is continuously becoming competitive. This has led to the enrollment of many adults for online degree programs in order to increase their competitiveness. For such learners with families and a job to maintain for their welfare as well as that of their family, it is important for them to have the capability to balance online college studies with work and family demands. Without this balance, some or all the activities that the student is supposed to undertake concerning education, work or family may fail. This essay is a critical description of an appropriate decision making process that can assist online students to balance education, work and family demands. It includes personal experiences using strategies through narration. How to Balance Online College Studies with Work and/or Family Demands The decision making process needs to be comprehensive, and the student should pay attention to all the details in regard to the tasks that need to be accomplished (Lavoie 2004). The student needs to group the activities in to two. Those that he/she understands are obligations that must be done routinely and those that may occur unexpectedly. The second is to organize them in a daily schedule, highlighting the most urgent ones as well as the resources needed. The third step is to develop strategies for achieving each of the tasks. For example I decided to work as a part time employee for five hours a day, beginning from 12.00 noon to 5.00 pm. I have 2 children and a wife who works full time from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm. The children have to leave for school at 6.00 am, be taken for lunch at 1.00 pm and back to school at 2.00 pm. They are collected from school at 5.30 pm. This is the daily schedule. I put these activities in the group of routine obligations. The second group is those that are not mandatory and the unexpected ones. I am a social person with several friends who always like spending some time in the evening with me for a chat that usually lasts for one to one and a half hours. My wife usually asks to be taken out in some of these evenings for shopping. On the other hand, there usually occur several unexpected events such as working beyond 5.00 pm to complete new assignments, a child needing medical attention, electricity failures, rainy days, minor accidents in the home, visitors who require attention, and many other such events that lead to digression from the daily schedule. I have set strategies to ensure that I accomplish the tasks that I have allocated for each day. The best time I find appropriate for studying is in the morning hours from 5.00 am to 10.00 am and from 8.00 pm to 10.00 pm. I negotiated with my wife to be taking the children to school, while I collect them in the evening after work. She usually takes them for lunch. I decided to allocate two evening hours for studies in case I lost some time with the unexpected events as I highlighted. Assignments are completed in the morning when I feel fresh from sleep. I usually chat with the children for most part of the evening when I am not out with friends. However, if I lose so much time in a day due to unexpected occurrences such as power failure, I do not go out with friends. Rather, I take the evening hours trying to recover the lost time. I always ensure that the resources needed for these activities are available. For example, I ensure that internet bills are paid on time, the family vehicle is in good condition, school fees is paid on time as well as electricity bills. I also ensure that all tasks are completed on time. This means that my work is done at the work place and not postponed. I also made sure that my boss understands my daily schedule in order for him to be supportive. My wife also understands the commitment I have put in education and is supportive too. In general, an online student needs to carefully analyze the things he/she can accomplish in a day and ensure that they fit in the schedule. It is important to ensure that all activities are done at the time allocated to them. This is important in the avoidance of procrastination of activities, which may lead to failure of accomplishment of personal goals. On the other hand, it is also important for the student to understand the tasks that can be delegated to others if the available time does not allow their accomplishment. However, they should make sure that the person to whom the task is allocated is conversant with it. For example, a couple who are teachers may assist each other in marking assignments if they are experts in the subject. It would be unethical for a teacher to let an economics assignment be marked by her spouse who is a nurse (Lavoie 2004). It is important to live a personal lifestyle in regard to the family other than the conventional lifestyle. This may include hiring a house help in order to save time for learning. It is also important to be realistic in all the undertakings. The student needs to undertake only the activities that are achievable. Taking up full time employment with few hours of break per day may not favor learning. This usually leads to a situation whereby the student has to be unfaithful to the managers at the work place, which may lead to dismissal once discovered. It is also important to ensure that the resources available for the family are sufficient. Using all of them for learning may cause suffering and conflict in the family, and may eventually lead to failure. In conclusion, decision making is core to the success of balancing education, work and family demands. Understanding all the requirements of each is significant in the decision making process which gives rise to a schedule of the activities that were highlighted. The schedule serves as a guide in regard to determining which activity is to be undertaken first, and also the one that has not been accomplished. It also helps in identifying the most appropriate time when such an activity can be fixed. Flexibility of personal lifestyle is also important in order for the student to choose the most appropriate strategies that will be favorable for the student as well as the family. Bibliography Lavoie A. Work-life balance and SMEs: Avoiding the “one-size-fits-all’ trap, CFIB, 2004 Read More