While 94% of workers believe work-life balance is essential, 66% say they haven’t achieved it. Meanwhile, 73% say work-life balance is important when looking for a job, and 61% say they would reject a job if the position would impact their work-life balance negatively.
When considering the importance of achieving a good balance, you’ll want to explore ways to arrive at that happy place.
However, what do you do if you want to return to school but have a full-time job, a spouse, kids, and other responsibilities? One option is to explore how distance learning can help you achieve your objectives.
Here are five ways online learning can help you achieve the often elusive work-life balance.
- You Can Take Classes When It Makes Sense
Do you want to go back to school but fear that you don’t have the time, given your other responsibilities? One way to do it all is to enroll in a distance learning program.
As long as you stay on top of things, you can study when it makes sense for your schedule. If you have children, enrolling in a program that requires on-campus attendance might be hard. The school hours might conflict with your duties as a parent. However, distance learning will give you ultimate control over your life.
- You Can Study Any Time of the Day
In addition to being able to plan your studies around your familial commitments, you can choose what part of the day you want to pursue your education. Work-life balance means arranging things in such a way that you don’t feel like you’re burning both ends of the candle.
If you want to study when the house is quiet, you can do it in the early morning hours. That’ll give you the time to focus on your education and free up time later in the day for other things.
- You Can Take Breaks
When taking distance learning courses, you can break things up any way you choose. So, if you’re the sort of person who prefers to work in spurts and take lots of breaks, distance learning is an option you’ll appreciate.
It’ll improve work-life balance since you’ll have control and won’t feel overwhelmed. You can determine how long you study and when you take a break so you don’t put too much on your plate.
- You Can Go Where You Want
Yet another way distance learning can facilitate work-life balance is that you can go wherever you want without worrying about missing classes.
Since you can take classes wherever you want, you can travel if you wish, run errands, or take time off. Do you and your family want to take a vacation or go on a road trip? Distance learning means you can have it your way. All you need is a computer and high-speed internet access. You won’t be tethered to a specific place since distance learning will cut the proverbial cord.
- You Can Learn Skills That Help You Get the Job You Want
Distance learning can also be your ticket to a job that affords better work-life balance. That’s especially true if you can find online learning options that don’t take a long time. If you’re into the trades, for instance, you can enroll for a same-day certification for a forklift operator. But that’s just one of many possible certification options that can help you get a new job.
Achieving a work-life balance that works for you isn’t an impossibility. Continuing your education while handling everything else you have going on in your life can be challenging. But distance learning can make it easier to get everything done without stretching yourself too thin.