Below is a guest blog post from Tim Serey, Ph.D., Ashford University

College students who enroll in online courses are often confronted with a number of time management issues that can affect their work-school-life balance. Here are seven specific tips that will help.

1. Read everywhere. Take your books everywhere to catch 10 to 30 minutes here and there. Waiting to have the car oil changed? Read. Sitting in a doctor’s office? Read. Standing in a long line? Read. These seemingly small time increments mount up.
2. Don’t procrastinate with deadlines. Successful online students learn not to put off postings or papers to the last minute. Procrastination leads to stress that, to some extent, students bring on themselves.
3. Follow your core values. Time management also involves knowing when not to study. The guiding principle should be to follow your values to achieve a balanced life. For example, develop a schedule to manage time that includes an ironclad promise not to do any school work (e.g., Friday nights = family time, or “date night.”) By my values, do the work but - family comes before school.
4. Reject multi-tasking! Don’t try to cook, do laundry, watch TV, or have your cell phone on while you do online school work. Virtually all of the research shows that multi-tasking invites mistakes. Remember, distraction is the enemy of focus, which is normally how people produce work of sustained excellence.
5. Eat properly. Don’t skip meals because you are “too busy to eat.” To illustrate, skipping breakfast can induce hypoglycemia or low blood sugar, which can adversely affect short term memory. In other words, it may be true literally that you can eat your way to better grades!
6. Learn to say no! This can be tough to do, but learn to say no to kids, spouses and others. Buffer time for yourself and for school work. To reduce guilt feelings, remember that child psychologists tell us children who are nurtured and loved unconditionally know it.
7. You can’t do it all. I sometimes ask my online students who struggle with time management — “what did you give up before you decided to enroll?” In many online colleges, students learn at an accelerated pace and graduate much quicker. My advice is, before you enroll in online classes ask yourself, what will you “take off your plate?”

Use these suggestions to manage your time. Instead of “online tears,” they can result in smiles, higher grades, and successful pursuit of your degree.

Online teaching has been a way of life for Dr. Tim Serey of Scottsdale, Ariz., for the past 10 years. He has published nearly 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals and served on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Management Education for nine years.

Balance your job with online coursework as you earn your Bachelor’s or Master’s degree. You’ll find Ashford University, founded in 1918, is an ideal choice for you whether you’re a working adult or haven’t yet completed your degree.