Ben’s Reflection on Finding Work-Life Balance
As a first year student, I expected that by the midpoint of my degree, I would have the perfect work-life balance. Well, it is the beginning of semester two of my third year as a law and biomedical science student, and I feel like I am still figuring out how to balance the important aspects of my life, like my two demanding degrees, work commitments, extracurricular involvements, social life, and of course, time for myself.
But, I view this as an exciting challenge, and not at all a discouraging thing! While I could see myself becoming easily overwhelmed with trying to crack the code to a well-balanced lifestyle, I have decided to reflect on my university journey so far in a scientific way to see if there really is a golden formula that would allow me to optimally balance my life as a university student.
My first year was characterised by a plethora of opportunities and new experiences. I made many new friends, I joined clubs I don’t even remember the names of, and I found myself a rewarding part-time job. I romanticised every little aspect of my new life as a university student, and immersed myself into what was a stimulating and novel environment. However, this left me with little time to focus on my studies. I quickly became overwhelmed by the increasing number of lectures to watch and readings to analyse. At the end of my first year, I found myself in a position where I had indulged in my social life at the expense of my grades, and inevitably, at the expense of my confidence to face the challenges of law school.
I knew then that I had to make some significant changes to my lifestyle to work towards achieving my study ambitions.
In my second year, I became a more diligent student. I attended the majority of my classes (even the three hour long Property A seminars!), I wrote comprehensive notes and completed practice exams. I became more actively involved in my extracurricular activities, and enthusiastically took part in three initiatives that I felt passionate about. At the time, I thought that my commitments would force me to be productive and minimise procrastination. While I definitely improved my time management skills to optimise my productivity and improve my grades, I found myself drained by the end of my second year. I was exhausted, and I knew that this was not sustainable for my well-being in the long run.
So, once again, I went back to the drawing board to reevaluate my work-life balance: I decided to cut back on my work hours, allow myself to only go out two or three times a week, and narrow down my extracurricular activities to two clubs. At this stage, I felt confident that I had geared myself to have a productive first semester of my third year of university.
And it was!
Of course, there is room for improvement. However, upon reflecting on my university journey thus far, I have come to the conclusion that managing a productive work-life balance is inherently an ever-evolving task, as your circumstances will change with every new semester of university. There is simply no one-fit-for-all golden formula.
Rather, you must be flexible and willing to adapt to the dynamic environment of law school, and most importantly, always prioritise your physical and mental health while doing so. Allocating a non-negotiable period of time for yourself is paramount to your success in law school. I know that if I did not do this every time I reevaluated my work-life balance, I would have crashed and burned sooner rather than later.
Law school is a marathon, not a race. While it is a cliche, it doesn’t make it any less true and relevant when finding a reasonable work-life balance.
Written by Ben Kang