Balancing Committee Responsibilities with Academics
- ACSN Team
- Feb 7
- 6 min read
Time-management strategies to help committee members handle their society roles without compromising their studies.
Being an ACS committee member should be an added bonus to your university experience, be it to enhance your CV, gain experiences and opportunities to further your career, or to play a key role in connecting the African and Caribbean community. This could all, however, be compromised when the balance between ACS and other aspects of your life is lost and things become overwhelming.
There are effectively three things you’ll juggle as a committee member, and so we’ll break down this resource into three sections:
Managing your ACS position
Managing your studies
Making time for other things including rest and well-being
As well as providing you with general tips and advice, and a heads up on some of the hurdles you may face.
Managing Your ACS Position
Time commitments are determined by your position in the committee with the executive team—president, vice president, treasurer, events, and social media—typically always ‘on the job’ as opposed to more ‘seasonal’ positions like sports officer and annual showcase coordinator or positions, like well-being officer, that are active year-round but typically less time-consuming.
Knowing which of these categories your position falls in and what exactly you are expected to do within it will allow for proper planning and execution of tasks with minimal surprise and headache. For successful planning to be made possible, the expectations for each role should be clearly established at the beginning of the academic year and made easy to refer back to. And in addition, there should be an idea of when events are actually going to happen—the society is driven by its events and everything is centred around them. Good communication with and within the events team, a shared calendar, and sufficient committee meetings should make this possible.
Organising yourself within your position looks different for each role, but if we’re starting with arguably the most important, events planning could look like a 2-3 hour brainstorm of event ideas and dates in August for semester one, to be shared with the rest of the team. Establish contacts for collaboration, find out how to book venues, and who to get involved with each event generally. From this, the treasurer can figure out event feasibility based on budget and ticket pricing, and should funds be insufficient, there is enough time to seek extra. Social media can begin planning Instagram posts, which may just need tweaking closer to the date (when things normally get confirmed). All this would be arranged by the president and vice president, but your team may work differently, so find out what works for you all.
For the ‘seasonal’ positions, it may be tempting to switch off until your event draws near but ensure you give yourself enough time to prepare to avoid doing things last minute. Remember, news of bad ACS events spreads quickly, which could lower future turnout! So if you’re not sure how long it would take to plan, ask the person who previously held your position or reach out to someone in the network or your cluster with the same role.
Managing your studies
Don’t forget this, and most definitely don’t completely prioritise ACS over this. Your time on the committee is at least one year, but you’ll have the qualification for life. This is not to say disregard ACS, as the impact it can have on the wider community and on your future is great when you’ve tapped into your role. It is important to prepare for your studies ahead of the semester—knowing when your exams, placements, or internships are and when presentations, projects, or coursework are due—so you can anticipate when you’ll need to focus on them more and work ACS around it. If these are things you can start working on from early, then it would be best to do so—use any spare moments to stay on top of things, as you’ll never know how much time you’ll have later down the line. Make sure the committee is aware of any major commitments so they know you’ll be less involved during that time.
Set the tone from the beginning—start your studies as you intend to finish! Get into a routine and adopt good habits from the jump. Even if you haven’t got these in place yet, it’s never too late to incorporate them into your routine.
Some questions to ask to make sure your study routines and habits are effective:
Where do you study best? This can be more than one place; switching up the location can make studying less mundane
What time of day is best?
Is it better for you to take notes on paper or electronically?
Do you need to be alone or with people?
Are you improving in your weaker areas?
Are you seeing any progress or indicators that what you’re doing is actually working, e.g., quiz scores going up?
Are you taking the right number of breaks and in the right way? Ideally, you should come back to studying feeling refreshed having completely focused on something else.
N.B.: The study routine that works best for you may change depending on the subject matter, your location, mental state, etc., so be prepared to adapt and be flexible around it so that it stays effective. Also consider strategies to hold yourself accountable to your routine.
Finally, make the most of the support provided by your institution; this could be well-being support, personal tutors, or academic support—essay writing workshops, revision workshops, or supportive classes that make studying easier and quicker.
Making time for other things including rest and well-being
Be sure to take quality time away from ACS and your studies so you can come back to them refreshed or feeling ready to work on other things.
You’ll need to find your way of switching off. This could be by muting the committee group chat when you are on break or at key points in the day, for example, when you are studying or in lectures. However, give the option for a call in case of emergency, and if you’ve been off for an extended period, inform people that you’re back. Pick up an extracurricular activity to replenish your energy and take your mind completely off things.
Regarding other projects or goals you have in mind, don’t drop them completely for ACS; find time to work towards them. After you’ve identified your priorities from highest—the most immediate task or task of greatest significance—to lowest, allocate and try to stick to the time set for each. Know when it’s time to put something down and move on to the next objective; some things may not be worth spending the extra time if it means not achieving your goals. Equally, you could find a way to incorporate it into society—if your goal is to get fit, suggest an ACS run club or gym group or a language learning group if you’re keen to build up this skill. If earning money is on your agenda, consider more flexible work with agencies; working nearby, on campus, or from home as a tutor, for instance, to cut down on time spent travelling.
Please remember ACS is not the be all and end all, so don’t stress too much—always put things into perspective! Look after your overall health too—sleep hygiene, food habits, etc.
Challenges you may face and general tips and advice
We want you to be able to cope with or avoid the stresses that may arise with juggling everything—at points during the year you might find yourself feeling physically tired going from event to event or emotionally drained from different stresses in your life piling up. Two close deadlines—one ACS the other work-related or tension within the committee.
The first thing is to speak up and let the relevant people know that you’re struggling
Next, seek out that support, be it from the ACS team to make sure adjustments can be made, or if the source is academics, make use of support from your institution.
Always maintain a flexible and adaptable approach
Take breaks
Create a shared calendar for ACS events and to schedule unavailability. Using tools like Trello, Google Calendar, or Notion can help everyone stay aligned with deadlines and responsibilities.
Plan for maybe two weeks ahead, prioritise all your tasks and allocate time for each to avoid getting overwhelmed and doing things last minute. For ACS-related things, consider one day out of the week by yourself or in your team (events, social media, etc.) or an hour every evening for the president or vice president.
Make use of breaks in between semesters or reading weeks to catch up in any area that you may have fallen behind in
Find people who will hold you accountable to whatever goals you set out and who will truly support you. As they say, a problem shared is a problem halved. Striking the balance between ACS, student life, well-being, and all else that remains will leave you with time management and organisational skills to take forward into the future. Just be sure to give each aspect of your life your best effort to get the most out of it but not to take things to the point of stress.
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