How to Balance School and an Internship When Life Gets Busy

When I began my senior year at Ohio State this fall, gaining internship experience was my top priority. I was ready to start getting a taste of the real-world while giving my resume a boost. I currently have two internships- one with Ohio State’s School of Communication, where I write web content, run their social media accounts, and assist on special projects. My other internship is with C.J. Mahan Construction Company, where I work directly with their marketing manager. Between both of these internships, my classes, being in two student organizations and having a part-time job, this is by far my busiest semester I have ever had, but I am learning so much. Here are three tips I recommended following when you’re feeling busy with schoolwork and an internship:

1.    Stay Organized 

At the start of each week, I write down a to-do list for the week in a notebook. Red ink is things to do for my internships, black ink is everything for my classes. I do this on paper instead of my computer because it helps me sort everything out by handwriting it and having a tangible list to refer to throughout the week is helpful. Crossing things off the list is also very satisfying and it helps me feel like I am getting things done. Since I do all my work for school and my internships on my laptop, having my to-do list separate on a piece of paper just helps me keep everything organized and stick to deadlines.

2.    Prioritize What’s Important

Between my internships and personal accounts, I currently have nine different social media accounts on my phone, covering all the major platforms- Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and LinkedIn. I recently noticed my personal Twitter account has become really inactive compared to what it used to be, but that is perfectly fine. I have to prioritize the social media accounts for my internships before any of my personal accounts and make sure I am keeping those accounts active first.

3.    Let Deadlines Motivate You

I’m sure you have heard many times by now that meeting deadlines is critical in the world of PR and communications. Take that same approach now with your work for your internships and classes. Having a mindset that all the work for your classes and internship has to get done no matter what helps prevent something from slipping through the cracks. If you start putting off things for a certain class that you don’t think is as important as your others, it could be easy to begin missing assignments and loosing points. An internship should never cause your GPA to go down.

Christian Snyder is a senior majoring in Strategic

Communication with a minor in Media Production and

Analysis. He is an Account Supervisor at The PRactice and

a member of PRSSA.