by Amelia Schaffer

Created on: July 22, 2009

It can be difficult to maintain a romantic relationship while you are busy with schoolwork. Often one must face the choice between neglecting schoolwork and neglecting one's significant other. As a result, balancing a boyfriend or girlfriend and schoolwork must be based in mutual understanding and compromise.

Balancing a boyfriend or girlfriend and schoolwork may be easier if you are both in school, and therefore understand how hard it is to find time for everything in your busy schedules. However, this might also mean that your class and study schedules are very incompatible. Be considerate to your significant other. If you only have a few hours per week when you are both free at the same time, leave that open for spending time together. You have a lot of other time to spend studying or with your friends.

It will also help you both manage your time if you schedule dates instead of just "hanging out" when you realize that you are free. Scheduling dates ensures that you and your boyfriend or girlfriend won't neglect spending time together. Because they are planned ahead, dates help prevent one person from feeling pressured to give up study or relaxation time because the other person is available. Planning dates also makes your time together feel more romantic and special. Find a nice restaurant within your budget, or go see a movie, instead of just eating together in the dining hall or hanging out in your dorm like you always do.

Some couples find it comfortable to study together, either by helping each other learn information or by simply working on their schoolwork in the same room. For some people, this might increase focus on the work, because there is another person in the room to make sure they do not spend more time taking study breaks than they do writing papers. Other couples might have trouble concentrating together because they have very different study habits. Maybe one focuses better in the afternoon and the other at night, or one thinks out loud and the other needs to study in total silence. Studying together might help some couples grow closer, but others should be careful that this "multitasking" doesn't cause friction in their relationship.

Above all, remember that while balancing a boyfriend or girlfriend and schoolwork, you must also include time for yourself. Don't limit your social life or take away from your necessary solitary relaxation in order to spend all or most of your free time with your significant other. This will only lead to resentment when you start to feel that you don't have time for yourself anymore. If your boyfriend or girlfriend demands more time than you have to give, they are not the right person for you.

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