Good Essay On Balancing Penn Foster Studies With Family Demands And Work

Stresses I Experience Daily as a student at Penn Fosters

Balancing education at Penn Foster with work and other family matters is quite a challenging issue. Personally, I have faced several problems emerging from a need to balance my studies at Penn Foster with family and work demands. Penn Foster being one of the International Schools that offer online studies provides certain guidelines and procedures that have to be met by all students.
The first challenge I have faced from balancing my studies at Penn Foster is inadequate time to perform all my daily activities. Being an employed person with a family, I need adequate time to perform my tasks at work and attend to various family issues. On the other hand, I need adequate time to attend online lectures and complete my assignments. However, the main challenge is that I am usually faced by time constraints leading to a scenario where I am compelled to post-pone some of my daily activities.
In some cases, I am usually faced by confusion mainly as a result of various tasks that I have to perform on a daily basis i.e. attending to certain family issues, completing certain projects at my work place and conducting my studies. This has led to situation of forgetfulness in some cases; where I fail complete certain tasks. At times, it has also been quite challenging to conduct my studies at home, especially when other family members are present. I am usually compelled to divide my attention to my studies while at the same time giving attention to what they are discussing. Psychological challenges especially when there is a family conflict is also another major stress that has impacted my studies. Whenever there is a family conflict; I am usually compelled to forgo my studies to engage in solving the disputes. Moreover, workload from school, work and certain family duties have also been some of the major daily stresses I experience. In most cases, I am provided with tasks at my work place that have to be completed within a specific deadline. On the other hand, I may have assignments to hand in within a short deadline, while also attending to solve family issues: This has subjected me to heavy workload. Financial constraint is also another major challenge that I experience as a student registered at Penn Foster, an employee and a family person.
The process of commuting from home to work and back is quite costly; it involves fuelling my car or paying for bus fare during certain days. Moreover, the access to certain online reading materials may require one to subscribe. This has been among the major daily problems I encounter as a Penn Foster Online student. The other challenge I have faced in regard to balancing studies at Penn Foster, family and work is poor relations with family members and work colleagues. This has been a major problem considering the fact that I am usually compelled to utilize the available time to complete the tasks allocated at my workplace, certain family issues and to conduct my personal studies. As such, I do not have adequate time to socialize with my colleagues at work and other family members. Some of my friends have even complained that my attitude towards them over the last few months mainly as a result of the fact that we do not interact as frequent as it used to be in the past.

How I cope and Accomplish my School Work

Balancing family, work and school work is evidently a challenging issue among most students (Haddock, 207); however, there are certain strategies that one can apply to succeed or solve these challenges. Personally, I have managed to solve some of the challenges discussed herein through proper planning; this has enhanced my efforts towards the completion of my school work, attending to certain family issues and performing my employment tasks. Through planning I have managed to allocate adequate time to each daily activity i.e. studying in the morning from 5am to 6am, working as from 8am to 4pm and attending to certain family duties or issues after work. Moreover, I have had discussions with some of my family members, mainly to make them understand the importance of my personal study time; this has reduced incidences of interruption that may occur from some of my family members, especially those that may require my attention during my study time. On the other hand, I have made certain personal changes, specifically the manner by, which I spend time. That is, I have developed high concentration skills in the sense that I pay adequate attention to individual activities until they are accomplished. This has enhanced my efforts in completing certain course work materials.
I have also improved my time management skill at work, at home and during studies ensuring that each activity is conducted within the allocated time. This has reduced incidences of postponing certain tasks to be conducted at later dates and has also reduced incidences of workload that occur as a result of accumulated work. I believe that with the application of this skill, students can properly balance studies at Penn Foster, family demands and work related duties. I also believe that proper time management allows students at Penn Foster to have adequate time to engage in certain activities i.e. socializing with friends and attending to certain family issues. In relation to financial constraints, I have managed to engage in proper budgeting and minimization of daily expenses i.e. using my bicycle at time to commute to work. As such, I do not have to spend money fuelling my car or taking a bus to work. This has provided me with adequate funds to subscribe to certain online reading materials that are pertinent for the successful completion of my school work. I have also developed a habit of spending maximum time with my family members on weekends and ensuring that all demanding family issues are handled during weekends or holidays. This ensures that I have adequate time during weekdays to perform my duties at work and attend to my personal studies. Consequently, I have a personal diary where I record all planned activities, at work, home and study activities. Considering the fact that I usually have duties to perform at work, assignments to handle and to family matters to attend to, there have been incidences of confusion. However, I have managed to prevent this confusion by recording all planned, completed and anticipated tasks in my personal diary.
In summary, students at Penn Foster may be subjected to a major challenge of balancing between family issues, studies and work mainly due to the following reasons: Poor time management, financial constraints, incidences of confusion due to lack of record keeping, high amount of workload and incapacity to set one’s priorities. However, as aforementioned, with proper time management skills, record keeping, budgeting and personal lifestyle changes, the above challenges can be solved, hence providing adequate time for students to engage in their studies.

Work Cited

Haddock, Shelley A., et al. "Practices of dual earner couples successfully balancing work and family." Journal of Family and Economic Issues 27.2 (2006): 207-234.