7 Survival Tips To Help You Balance K-Pop And School

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of simultaneously being a student and an avid lover of K-Pop, it’s not as easy as it seems. Two opposing forces threatening to consume your life can be quite overwhelming. Luckily, with these survival tips, you will be on your way to balancing a life that is productive yet fun.

1. Make a calming study playlist.

During long study sessions, creating a playlist can be extra motivating. Using piano versions, soft covers, or music box versions of songs can be relaxing and just enough for your brain to focus without distracting you with the actual song.

2. Reward yourself.

Organizing a prize system with yourself can feel incredibly rewarding. Set a goal: “If I work on this essay for an hour, after I can watch the new episode of BTS Bon Voyage.”

Apps like Habit can help you track your daily to-do’s. If you’re on a streak and have successfully completed your goals for a week, maybe you’re entitled to buy that album you’ve had in your cart for a while.

3. Turning off distractions.

When it’s time to buckle down, you have to be serious. Eliminate all distractions by putting your phone away. As painful as it sounds, not looking at your Twitter timeline for an hour probably won’t be fatal.

4. Find friends with a common interest.

As corny as it seems, gushing over your favorite group with a friend will totally relieve some stress between classes. Making the effort to join clubs is not as scary as it sounds, and you could find the Taemin to your Kai.

Wearing K-Pop merch is also a subtle way to attract friends! Even putting a key chain on your backpack will do the job.

5. Being mindful of the time…but also being realistic.

You may want to keep when midnight KST is in your timezone in mind in order to see important updates as they happen, but it shouldn’t dictate your entire schedule. There is no rush to see things instantly as they happen, since they’ll still be there when you finish…but if your bias’ concept photos drop during a slow point in class, a 5 minute bathroom break to fangirl in peace won’t hurt.

6. Incorporating K-Pop where you can for motivation.

Little things like using a BT21 folder or decorating your study space with a Cooky figure will make you feel a little more at home. There are also tons of ways K-Pop can be incorporated into school assignments (Just look at my 11K word honors communication thesis on K-Pop…and no, I’m not joking. -Writer’s note).

7. It’s okay to take a break from K-Pop.

Your bias isn’t going to be mad at you during finals week if you need to focus on your studies— as a matter of fact, they would probably be quite proud of you. Prioritizing is key, and taking some time to focus on what needs to be done will always do you well. Plus, absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?