A career is difficult to manage with your everyday life as it is. It becomes even more difficult when you take on a difficult job like teaching, where your workday doesn’t end when you go home but continues well into the night. You might get summer, Christmas, and Easter holidays off in compensation, but that doesn’t mean your workload isn’t demanding or that the job doesn’t cause stress. In fact, teaching is viewed as one of the most stressful jobs in the industry due to the high pressure placed on educators worldwide.
Adding on a degree while working full time can feel absolutely impossible, and attempting to take on a degree, even part-time, and keep your current career is going to be strenuous. Stress can lead to a deterioration of habits and health, including a poor sleeping pattern, eating junk food, and putting on or losing weight, which is why you will want to follow this guide to stay healthy and thrive during this busy time:
Choose the Right Degree for Your Career
Before you rush headlong into a new degree, you will want to know your options. Being prepared for the type of coursework and knowing that the degree in question is designed to help you best with your career will give you the motivation you need to push through. Being a teacher, for example, gives you a few options for career advancement. You could further your expertise in education and move on to working with the school board to create better curriculum for students in your district, or you can take a more personal approach and become a guidance counselor.
Both of these options require further education, however. By looking at the online masters in school counseling programs available, you can select the one that suits your needs best. Choosing online will give you the freedom and space to continue working and allow you to earn a degree from a top university without moving.
Before You Start Your Degree
It is crucial to get a good handle on your routine before you start your degree. This way, you won’t flounder when you suddenly have both work and studying or exam prep to do. You will have the support system in place, are used to working after you go home, and have improved your health so that you can manage the extra energy needed.
1. Improve Your Diet
Switching your diet over to one that is healthy and full of the vitamins and nutrients your body needs to stay alert all day long is not something you can do overnight. Take the time before your degree starts to work on improving your diet day by day. You can do this much easier when you remove all unhealthy temptation from the home and prep healthy meals for lunch in advance.
2. Start Exercising in the Mornings
Exercise is essential when it comes to being energetic and active throughout the day. It’s also a great way to improve your sleeping habits at night.
3. Find Great Locations to Study
You should not study at home. Home needs to be a place where you can relax and recover after a long day at work.
4. Figure Out Your Ideal Routine
Work out a routine in advance. It is exhausting to add in more to your everyday life at the start, but over time your body becomes used to it, and it seems to take less and less energy. Start early and adopt the routine you intend to use to work and study.
5. Read All The Readings
All educators will offer students extra reading options. If you can do, indeed try to get through all of those texts for greater understanding. If there is a sub-topic that interests you but doesn’t get covered in your degree, then look for more information yourself. After all, there are plenty of online resources available.
During Your Degree
When you are working on both your career and your degree, you will want to take things slowly but steadily. Try to combine activities when you can. For example, you can invite your friends over and work together to prep great work lunch meals for all of you to enjoy. Or you could read during your commute.
Reach Out When Feeling Overwhelmed
If you are feeling overwhelmed, then you need to reach out and ask for help. Friends and family can help you immensely during this time just by being there with you. See if someone you know has a passion project they want to also work on and make a study date so that you can keep pace with someone else, for example. Your loved ones care for you and want you to succeed, but if you don’t let them in, they cannot help.
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