The student population in college includes a large number of older students along with the youngsters. Some of the reasons why these students are attending college later in life than others may be due to various reasons such as being in the armed forces, or their priority to raise a family first etc.
Even though it seems like they would be adept at managing their time, with their extent of experience, it is interesting to note that it is often not so. Most of the time, these students stress over the same things as the younger ones, such as grades, course overload, jealousy and break ups. Hence, they have similar student experiences, even thought they may be much older.
In fact, they end up multi-tasking twice as much as their peers since they have many more duties to fulfill.
Besides these, they also experience stressful factors that are unique to them such as handling school and family responsibilities, managing their career along with studies and also the worry about fitting into the academic scenario after a long hiatus.
Thus, charting out a proper time management plan is more important to an elder student when compared to there regular young college student.
On the other hand, it is the older students who are most likely to benefit from a time management plan as they tend to stick to them, they are focused and mature about the way they handle things, unlike the younger students whose party going days have not yet ended.
Balancing Career and school
Most of the elder students are better equipped to manage their time between career and school, as they are more responsible and aware of the probable consequences of not doing so. There are still chances of them straying away from their responsibilities if they get too carried away with the prospect of living college life again. While some people have found that time management helps in making them better students and keeps them grounded, while some have become too overwhelmed with excitement to complete their duty.
Managing a Family with school
Many older college students have family responsibilities in addition to their job. A number of students face problems with deciding on how to use after-work time, since they have so much to do. They often end up in a dilemma whether to work on the term paper, study for an exam or spend time with their kids and spouses or so on. They may also have to worry about whether their in laws or extended families would be accommodating about their schoolwork.
It takes a very understanding spouse to provide psychological support for a student who has family and work responsibilities. A spouse who is willing to take on more than his or her share of the household chores and spend those extra few minutes with the kids that the student-parent can't and provide a shoulder to lean on, can go a long way in helping the student tackle the stressful situations they face.
In order for older students to succeed in managing time between career, school and family, they must always remind themselves of their duties. Most of the time, they manage to stay grounded once they realize the age gap between themselves and their classmates, but in other cases it is wise to take the longer route and to write down 'to do' lists and make schedules.
The way older students manage their time is not very different from how the younger ones manage theirs, but no matter how we handle time, it is constantly ticking away regardless of whether we are prepared to cope with it or not. Hence, the tools used for time management like check lists, alarms or software work the same way for everyone in spite of their lifestyles and age.
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