Tips for Balancing University + Blogging

Hi guys!

How was your weekend? Mine was bittersweet – I finally (after months and months of not being able to) got to move into my new flat. But on the flip-side of that I obviously had to leave home so I’m definitely missing my family but I know it will get batter with time. Anyway, because University is starting up next week (At least it is for me but I know a lot of people’s courses have already started whether it be school or college or university) I thought it would be a perfect chance to talk about some of the ways I manage to balance blogging and classwork plus general university life. I definitely am not great at managing the balance all the time, but I have definitely worked out some ways of helping to ease the stress and work load. Enough preamble from me, I’ll hop straight into things.

Plan

I know this is probably very dull and kind of self-explanatory but by far the best way to stay on top of everything and manage everything in your life is to plan ahead. I have a post schedule page in my Bullet Journal each month so I know when I want to post certain things and I found it super helpful. Things don’t have to be set in stone but at least a general guide of when you want to post and what you want to post will really help, especially when it comes to essay or exam times because you can plan ahead…which leads very nicely onto my next point.

Try to Schedule Posts Ahead of Time

If you know that you have no classes on a Thursday or you have a chilled out Sunday for example try to get as many posts as you can written on that day and just schedule them for whenever it is you actually want them to go live. This is actually what I am planning to do today in preparation for classes starting next week. Plus, by doing this it means that even if you plan to write post one day but something comes up and you can’t anymore; you can have a backup plan so you don’t miss an upload.

Try Not to Put Too Much Pressure on Yourself

Stressing yourself out that you have to post every single day as well as going to class, maintaining your grades, maybe having a part-time job and also having a life is just a unrealistic expectation. It’s okay to change up your posting schedule. It’s okay to not post for a month because you have other things that take precedence. My point is never feel like you have to blog because that almost always leads to your posts being of a worse quality but also you end up not enjoying it anymore when it becomes a task or a bore. I am still really bad for doing this and I always feel guilty when I miss a post but I need to stop putting that pressure on myself because it won’t help anything – learn from my mistakes.

Have A Routine

Something that really helped me was having a routine, and I got one I really liked during Lockdown. It helps keep you organised and makes sure you have time to do everything you want to do. My routine worked last year but it wasn’t the best; most of my classes were in the morning, I would eat lunch, then study a bit and then I would write posts in the later in the afternoon but I’d often be tired or arrange to see friends then so it would result in me just not writing posts as often as I would have liked. I don’t have my timetable yet but I think I have mainly online classes so once I get my timetable making a routine that fits everything in well and gives me a good balance shouldn’t be too difficult. It might take some trial and error though but that’s okay.

Be Resourceful with Your Posts

Are you a travel blogger who can’t travel during term time? Write posts about the cheapest ways to travel as a student in your town, best places to visit, cheap date locations etc. Make the most of what you can do rather than pinning after the stuff that you can’t. I know that when classes start I probably won’t be able to read as much as I normally like to. So instead of having no books to review I will review the books from my course. I’ve done this many times before in the past few years of University and I even did it when I was still in high school and had to balance that work load too. And if you’re really smart you can even use your blog post as a form of study – write a summary of the book without looking it up or discuss some of the major themes and then compare back to your notes to see how much you remembered correctly.

Remember Priorities

Ultimately, no matter how much your blog means to you, your Uni/School/College work should come first. (no offence guys, I promise I love you really <3) Missing a post is not the end of the world and if your content is good then people will not mind having to wait 4 days until after your assignment is finished.

That’s all my tips. I know it’s not the longest or most revolutionary list but they are all things that I either know help me, or things I want to try to work on. I hope you enjoy this and that the start of your academic year goes well! I hope these help if you do use them. See you tomorrow!

What year of study are you starting this year?
Are you excited for School/Uni/College to start again?
Do you have any more helpful tips to get a good blogging=life balance?