Time Management Crisis

[Nib_nabJab]

So I will begin a MA of Japan Studies in September - and I am scared. I will be working a part time job - 15 hours a week in addition to taking 15 credits. I keep hearing (online) people saying they study 30-40 hours outside of class for graduate programs and I guess its freaked me out. I am afraid I won't have any 'me time' while in graduate school and it could lead me to a nervous break down.

 

So I wanted to hear from all of you, how you manage your time, work in social/me time and survive the world of graduate school?

[KittenCatIV]

I'm starting this fall too, and I'm also nervous. I'll be doing 25-35 hours of outside work and nine credits. I know a lot of people do a full forty hours of work and six to nine credits as well.

What I find a bit odd is that you say you're taking fifteen credits-- or five courses. Usually nine hours is full-time, I think. Don't you need special permission to take that many courses at once?

[dan0075]

I did my MA part time (6 credits - two three credit classes) while working a demanding 40 hour a week job and it was of course tremendously challenging and I never felt like I had enough time to get it all done. I'm now working on my PhD (minus the day job, but with a TA position in its place). Time management is still an issue, but I've learned a few important lessons over the last few years...

 

1. Embrace prioritization and reject multi-tasking. Multi-tasking is overrated and, frankly, impossible. You can only do one thing at a time. Rather than trying to juggle multiple things at the same time, assess what you need to accomplish in a given week or on a given day and prioritize those tasks. Plan your schedule accordingly. When working on a task, work ONLY on THAT task and put all of the others out of mind.

 

2. Be realistic about what you can accomplish. I learned early on that it was pretty near impossible to read every single word of every page assigned to me every week. The simple fact of the matter is that cutting corners on reading (although never ideal) will almost certainly become necessary once in a while. For example, if you have a paper due Tuesday morning and you still have two forty page articles to read for Tuesday afternoon, you may well have to skimp on the reading that week. I'm not saying this should be the usual state of affairs, but once in a while it happens. So don't beat yourself up when it does. Again it comes down to prioritization. In most cases, there are some readings that are more important than others. Making those distinctions is a talent you'll foster over time. 

 

3. Accept that once or twice a semester you'll have a few miserable nights of working all night long and then having to get through the following day on no sleep. But once you've accepted that, try to make the night as pleasant for yourself as possible. For example, on those nights, I give myself license to eat whatever I want (usually take-out so I don't have to spend time cooking). Buckle down and do the work, but indulge in something along the way. 

 

4. No matter how pressed for time you are, claim at least an hour for yourself every day. You are correct that you could well have a breakdown without any "me" time. The only way to ensure you get that time is to make it as much a priority as your coursework, research, and job. It really is just as important. For me, my "me" time is the gym in the morning and an old rerun of "Law & Order" on Netflix at the end of my day while preparing dinner. And I try as often as possible to take at least the greater part of a weekend day off. But if I find I can't take a full day away from the books on the weekend, I at least spend a good portion of my work time at a coffee shop or in some public space so I don't feel like a total hermit. 

 

The bottom line is that being a grad student (especially a grad student with a job) means always having a huge workload and a looming deadline. But there are many little ways to find some relief along the way. BUT you have to figure out what those little ways are and understand that the time set aside for those has to be protected as fiercely as you would protect the time set aside for work or study. Grad school does not have to be a totally stressful and hateful experience. 

 

One last thing, when you do find yourself relaxing a bit and not doing any work, DON'T FEEL GUILTY ABOUT IT. A little break once in a while is not only deserved, but it is an absolute necessity for well being and success. 

[danieleWrites]

I get all spazzed about it, too. I learned, unfortunately enough, toward the end of my MA how to not just organize time, but to organize projects, papers, etc. I had to figure out not only when to work on research, but how to do it most effectively. In English, I don't have any experiments, labs, and other considerations. I have a lot of reading. I maintained research logs, lists of need-to-know, a working outline of the paper, and some indexing of the literature I was working with. I was still feeling like a horse that had been rid hard and put away wet toward the end of the semester, but I wasn't driving everyone around me insane while I was doing it. Management is key. Developing your own management style, even more so.

 

Frankly, I'm a bit terrified of the PhD program. Class starts the 26th and I have to have 300 pages of a 1200 page book read by then. Yeah, it's assigned. Oh, heck, what have I done to myself?