Yogyakarta, 14 September 2020—Center for Digital Society Fisipol UGM is back with the 33rd Digital Discussion on Sunday night. The digital discussion via Whatsapp Group raised the topic of “Maintaining Study Life Balance in the Digital Era”. Haris Hendrik, the second runner up of the Accomplished University Student Award UGM 2020, is the speaker in this session. As usual, the event started at 7 pm and was moderated by Made Agus Bayu, an Event Assistant for CfDS.
One of the biggest indicators that a university student has reached a good study-life balance is good time management. The art of action priority matrix says that we need to prioritise based on the impact and effort of an action. There are four basic areas to consider when doing time management; quick wins, big projects, fill ins, and wasted time. “Now, what everyone has to avoid are big wasted time or small impact, big effort actions. These actions will take a lot of time but will give us little to no impact,” Haris said.
Creating time management with a big impact is not easy. Haris has had his share of trying to reach a study life balance in the midst of his hectic schedule. He said that while in university, we need to have some planning. We need to have a clear view on what we want to achieve in our four years and what is our end goal. In 2017, Haris wants to give the highest regard towards the Forestry Faculty in the pilmapres UGM award. Then, Haris learns from the national Mapres Guide Book from the Ministry of Education. Finally, he got to be the second runner up of UGM’s the most accomplished student in 2020. Through his accomplishment, Haris said that we need to design our dream well because everyone deserves to reach their dream by understanding the battle field that they are about to enter and what to do in the future.
To manage his time, Haris always prioritize quick wins in relation to the consideration about impact and effort, listing down his responsibility and rundown every day, trying his best to give everything to his work, and to not be a people pleaser. He understands that having the title of the most accomplished student means that he also needs to give his impact as an accomplished student. Therefore, he initiated a social project focused on the education sector called @lensapendidikan.id and one focused on the environment sector called @wilohabhumi.id. “Now, as much as i can, i try to balance myself between my academic and non-academic life and with the energy, thought, and time that i have. I will say no to anything that I can’t give my full time and energy to,” he said.
Then, to support ourselves to do what we want, we can do something that sustains our passion. For example, Haris joins the UGM Model United Nation extracurricular and the International Forestry Student Association because he loves diplomacy and negotiation and most of his accomplishments are in the sector of public speaking, negotiation, and diplomacy. “So, if you want to follow your dreams, follow your passion,” Haris said.
“Follow your dreams because humans are born with dedication and responsibilities. Adapt yourself to doing what great people do,” said Haris as the closing line.