Getting balance in your life
About
Between family, friends, university, sleep, eating, exercising and finding time for the activities you love, life at university can get busy and it can feel overwhelming; but it can also be very rewarding. It’s important to maintain a healthy balance and feel in control.
If you are trying to have more balance in your life, then firstly realise that not everything can be in your control. What you can control though is to make a commitment to keep a balanced lifestyle to the best of your human ability.
Having balance in your life though is not a final goal that you achieve and always have. It is an ongoing process that you commit to and refine as your circumstances change.
The best place to start is to think about having a structure to your day, week and month and have a flexible plan to ensure you fit all your important priorities in. This means planning sufficient time to meet university assignment deadlines, work commitments and to have quality social time with friends.
What to do
Here are some strategies you may like to try to keep your life in balance.
- Prioritise your goals and decide which are most important, and then, do the most important things first.
- For your goals, make sure they are ‘SMART’. That means they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.
- Pay attention to your health. You are more productive and happier when you get enough sleep, eat healthier and fit in some type of activity.
- List all the things in your life that occupy your time from what you do at home, at work, in relationships, university and so on. Look over the list and see if there are things that add little to your life and can be discarded.
- Relationships do matter. Set aside quality time with your family and friends.
- The DeakinWELLBEING app can help you to develop healthy habits and find balance.
Getting support
Deakin's Counselling service and study support appointments are available to help you navigate life at university.
More help and advice
Deakin provides weekly and trimester planner templates that you may find useful for planning your time.
ReachOut have some information on how you can nail your study-life balance.