College is stressful and when you throw a relationship in the mix things can get a little bit crazy, am I right? I mean, is it even possible to balance college and your relationship?

I know a lot of college students who are in relationships say that their partner feels like they are not dedicating enough time to them while they’re going through the semester.

This was definitely the case for my boyfriend, Elvis and I during my first semester of nursing school. We got into a lot of arguments about me not being able to balance the heavy school work load and our relationship. I felt a lot of guilt about having to choose between being really successful in nursing school and keeping my relationship.

So in this week’s episode of Soulful Studies Sunday what I am going to talk about is how I finally learned to balance college and my romantic relationship.

The Key Steps To Balancing Studying and A Relationship in College:

1. Communication: Be clear with your partner and communicate with them what it’s like to be a college student. Tell them what your schedule is like, how much free time you have each week and when your busy periods are each month.  These busy periods would be around paper deadlines, exams, midterms and finals. This will help your partner understand why you’re saying no to hanging out with them on Monday night. This information could open up the doors for them to show their support around those times and ease the stress you might feel.
2. Take Responsibility For Your Time: You need to take an honest look at where you’re spending your time. Every single time you spend 2 hours scrolling Facebook instead of hanging out with your partner, what you’re saying is that Facebook is more important than your relationship. Remember, every time you say yes to something, you’re also saying no to something else. So be careful about what you’re saying yes to. One of the things that I did in nursing school was dedicate one day out of the week which was our Date Day.  It was one day that I could focus on building a stronger relationship without having to sacrifice on my GPA goals.
3. Make sure the time you’re spending is Quality Time: What quality time means is that, when you’re with your partner you’re not thinking of nor feeling guilty about the fact that you’re out on a date night instead of studying for your exam. The way that you get to this point is by having a good Sanity Schedule and learning how to effectively study so that you do have more free time to spend with your partner.  Learn how to study effectively with my course Rock@College.