Life as an undergrad student requires a lot of balance — from academic responsibilities to potential career-launching internships and a full social calendar, students can find it difficult to keep it all working harmoniously. However, mastering this balance is crucial for not only academic success, but also for personal growth and networking opportunities.
Life In Undergrad
Undergraduate students come into college expecting to juggle a full course load of academics with a full social life, a schedule that might feel manageable in their freshman and sophomore years.
Once students get into their third year of college, though, many programs require students to get internships as part of their graduation requirements. According to 2023 Gallup data, 41% of college students had an internship while pursuing their bachelor’s degree. Internships can be a valuable part of the undergraduate experience and a key step toward the post-college life of building a career. But when internships are squeezed into an already full schedule, they can be a lot to manage for students.
With proper planning, strategies, and flexibility, you can not only balance college life, but also thrive in every aspect. Use these nine tips to navigate the complexities of undergrad life and make the most of your college experience.
1. Prioritize your time
Prioritizing tasks in college is a critical skill that will serve you well in your future career. Start by writing down all the things you need to do and their deadlines — make sure the list is as exhaustive as possible. Then consider both the importance and the urgency of each task, and highlight the most important and
most urgent tasks (the ones with specific, immovable deadlines) to work on first. Then you can create a new to-do list with the most important items at the top with their deadlines. You should break each item down into smaller steps, or a “next action,” in author and productivity expert David Allen’s Getting Things Done terminology.
For example, if you have a research paper due next week, writing down “research paper” on your to-do list might feel unmanageable and difficult to accomplish. Instead, define the next action needed, such as “check out relevant books from the library” or “organize your research notes,” and then set aside time on your calendar for that next action. Once it’s complete, define and schedule the next action, and so on. Return to the list daily to add and prioritize tasks.
2. Utilize a planner or digital calendar
Juggling school, internships, and a social life is made simpler with a tool like a planner, a digital calendar, or an app. These tools allow you to visually organize deadlines, appointments, and commitments so that you can have a clearer perspective on your schedule. Knowing what you’re committed to (and when) can prevent last-minute scrambles when a wrench is thrown into your plans. It also allows you to identify inefficiencies that could be turned into opportunities to be more productive.
Some students work well with the tangibility of a plain ol’ paper planner, purchased from Target, Amazon or an office supply store. Paper planners allow you to see your daily tasks, weekly deadlines, and monthly goals all at a glance, and you can easily color-code the types of activities. Some students also retain the information better if it’s handwritten, keeping their deadlines more front of mind.
A paper planner doesn’t allow for the same level of flexibility when plans change, though, so a digital tool, like a calendar or app, can be useful. Google Calendar, Calendly and Apple Calendar are all free tools that allow you to schedule out your commitments and set up custom notifications so that nothing falls through the cracks. If you aren’t able to accomplish everything you planned in a day, you can easily move that task to the next day. You can also block off time for studying, commuting to your internship, and hanging out with friends.
An app, such as Todoist or Trello, can allow you to keep track of to-do lists and major projects, set notifications, categorize tasks, and reprioritize items when needed. An education-specific app, like PowerPlanner, also allows you to track deadlines and maintain a calendar in one platform, plus it offers features like GPA tracking.
3. Set realistic goals
When it comes to goal-setting, make sure your academic, personal, and professional goals are always achievable. You can even follow the SMART acronym: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. For example, if you’re hoping to have career prospects straight out of college, set goals for each semester that build toward those aspirations, such as attending a certain number of professional networking events or job fairs relevant to your career, or having your internship supervisor or academic adviser give you feedback on your resume and cover letter writing. If you set goals for yourself that are not realistic or achievable within the scope of undergrad life, they can do more harm than good by discouraging you from even trying to achieve them.
4. Communicate effectively
Clear communication is another skill that will serve you in college life and beyond. Being proactive in your communication with internship supervisors, professors, and peers goes a long way in helping you to balance all of your priorities. For example, if you believe that your internship responsibilities for a certain week will make it difficult for you to meet a major deadline for a class, communicate that to your internship supervisor ahead of time. They want you to be successful academically, and they might allow you to adjust your internship hours to accommodate. There might also be times when you need to set clear boundaries or say no to certain commitments — perhaps this isn’t the semester to take on new volunteer responsibilities for a club on campus, or maybe that optional extra-credit project for class isn’t worth missing social time with friends.
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Who are you called to be?
Pursue your purpose at PLNU.
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5. Take care of your health
Part of time management as a student means protecting your physical, mental, and emotional health, sometimes grouped under the term “self-care.” This will help you to combat the stress and burnout that college students face. Caring for your physical health means getting at least seven hours of sleep per night, staying hydrated (refillable water bottles come in handy), getting exercise (ideally 30 minutes per day), and eating a well-rounded, nutrient-dense diet. You can maintain your mental and emotional health by taking regular breaks from your computer, participating in fulfilling hobbies, and spending time in nature for fresh air and vitamin D. If you need additional help or someone to talk to, contact the on-campus counseling center.
6. Make time for relaxation and socializing
It can be easy to let the expectations of classes, homework, studying and internships keep you busy seven days a week, squeezing out any opportunities to enjoy friendships. But just like you’ve scheduled in time for an internship commute or studying for an exam, you can block off time in your planner or calendar to nurture relationships and unwind. If you have a big paper or internship deadline on a particular day, make sure you schedule time immediately after that to zone out, enjoy a hobby (like surfing or reading), or nap.
Also, be sure to schedule time with friends to step away from your computer and be social at least one or two days a week. It can be as simple as a casual movie night in a dorm room, getting off campus for a coffee run, or planning to attend an ASB-organized event together. College is a great opportunity to make lifelong friends, and you don’t want to look back after graduation and realize that academics and career networking always take precedence over relationships.
7. Seek support when needed
We all need help sometimes — don’t be afraid to ask for support when you need it. Build a support system early in your college life. Make sure it includes family members and close friends you can talk to about personal situations, as well as spiritual and academic mentors who can give spiritual or professional guidance when you need it. If you have a disability that is affecting your academics and life as an undergrad student, resources like the Educational Access Center (EAC) can provide holistic support so that you can thrive during college.
8. Reflect and adjust
When you’re balancing school and internships, your schedule and commitments need to be assessed and adjusted regularly. Take time as often as possible — monthly, bimonthly, or at the end of every semester — to determine what’s working and what isn’t. Have you gone three weeks without spending time with a close friend? Do you keep arriving late to your internship because you didn’t account for finding a parking spot? Are you consistently underestimating how much time you need to study? You’ll start to see patterns in your workload and social commitments.
Think of this information as valuable data to make more informed decisions about how to allocate your time and energy going forward. Adjust your schedule to better align with whatever priorities and goals you’ve set. You might need to reallocate time for social commitments or studying, or shift your schedule so you don’t show up late to your internship. This type of reflective process gives you more self-awareness and empowers you to adapt to changing circumstances, and ultimately experience a more fulfilling college work-life balance.
9. Stay flexible
As with anything else, life as an undergrad student doesn’t always go according to plan. While you can have the best-laid plans that carefully allocate time to school, internships, and a social life, unexpected challenges or opportunities will come up. Embrace flexibility and creativity when a last-minute study session, a spontaneous social invite, or an unexpected internship project comes up. Keep a positive mindset and be willing to adjust plans and timelines. This will help you build resilience and more easily navigate the ups and downs of college life.
Experience Undergrad Life at PLNU
As a small liberal arts university in San Diego, PLNU is equipped to nurture and support individual students in their academic, personal, and professional goals. With a 13:1 faculty-to-student ratio, the environment at PLNU allows for one-on-one relationships with professors and academic advisers. If you’d like the opportunity to experience a personally fulfilling and professionally rewarding undergraduate experience, chat with an undergraduate admissions counselor to see if PLNU is the right place for you.