How I Survived a Semester of Full-Time Uni and Work

Last year, I made the decision go back to study my passion, creative and professional writing. If I were able to leave my full-time job, I would have. But that just wasn’t an option. So I decided I could do both.

After many internet searches, I found Deakin University and their Cloud study platform. Study online, when you want, how you want and even better, they were offering a third semester of study for the year, so I could start in November and get a head start on my course. It was perfect! So I applied for the Bachelor of Arts majoring in Creative and Professional Writing. Two days later I got an email telling me I was successful in a place in the course.

Excellent! I thought, so I went online and enrolled in all my units. I was so excited, there were so many interesting ones to choose from, and I could choose electives from any faculty!

In my excitement, I didn’t think to check the workload for each unit, so I enrolled in three — Communication Studies, Creativity Studies, and, Philosophy Love Sex and Death. I said to myself, that seems like a part-time study load, so I thought.

November came and brought with it the start of my first semester as a uni student, and I logged onto the ‘Cloud’ (Deakin’s online learning platform). The navigation alone took some getting used to and then I began to read through the unit guides. It didn’t seem too bad. The workload appeared manageable.

As the semester started, I began doing the work for each unit, it was a lot. I later found out that I was doing a full-time course load. But by the time I had found this out I had put so much time and effort into each unit I didn’t want to drop out of any. I persisted. I can do this, I told myself.

Now that I am nearing the end of the semester I am happy to say that I could do it, I have done it, and now I’m going to tell you how I survived.

Planning is everything:

I knew that to stay on top of things I had to plan out my study days. Fortunately, I have always been good at scheduling and planning. I utilised this skill and made myself a study schedule.

In this step, I found that it is important to stick to one unit per day of study. In the beginning, I tried to do a bit of each subject every night, but it proved to be too much. The philosophy unit alone had 2–3 lengthy readings per week that I needed to get through and reflect on, then there were the weekly lectures to watch.

Keep this in mind when you make your plan, don’t try to do too much in each study session. Stick to one unit per session and focus on the material that is due that week.

Set yourself a goal for each session, for example:

- Watch lecture and make notes.

- Read material and do weekly activities for this week.

In my plan, I used my iPhone calendar to set reminders for each session and wrote in the events which units I was working on and what needed to be completed.

Having a list to tick off helps to get things done and allows you to see and feel that you are getting somewhere.

Time management is key:

One of the benefits of online study is that you can study when it suits you. That was the appeal for me in the first place, given I have a full-time Monday — Friday job.

However, time management is still important in this endeavour.

Time management links closely to planning and scheduling. When you make your study plan be realistic about what you need to do in that session, don’t set yourself too much to do in the session or you will fail and feel worse about it. For example, if you have to do two readings and watch a 50-minute lecture don’t set yourself a time of 1 hour to do all of this, it just won’t work.

Another important point here is to block out the study time and ensure that you stick to it, be consistent with it, it does pay off.

You can also utilise time blocks throughout the day, for example, your commute time to work and lunch breaks. I started doing philosophy readings on the train to work and also logged into some units during lunch times to check on messages and participate in discussion forums. This meant that I had more time to work on other uni tasks later in the evening at home.

Have a dedicated study space:

To achieve the first two points, you need somewhere to study.

As a writer, I am lucky to have a dedicated work space at home. It is set up with everything I need to get my work done, whether that be writing or study.

If you don’t have a desk at home, set up a spot where you will be free from distractions and temptations.

Go to the library with your laptop or a quiet cafe with some headphones and a good study playlist. Stick to what works for you, I tend to get distracted with music so I usually just work in the quiet. The point is to go with what works for you, and you may need to try different things before finding which approach suits you best.

Stay focused and be committed:

In today’s social media world studying online can be difficult given the constant distractions and temptations. Facebook, Twitter, and, YouTube can suck us into a hole that will leave us wasting hours online when we should be studying.

My advice, turn them all off. You need to be focused, and you need to commit to your study. So put your phone away or on silent if you can’t be without it. Don’t go to Facebook or Twitter. Or if you can manage it, don’t have the applications on your computer.

Some programs can block these websites during set times, but I have never used them. Instead, I commit to my study and never open anything that isn’t required for uni. Once I got into the swing of things my study time was filled with productivity, and I was able to check all the social media stuff later on after I had finished my session (and there wasn’t anything I missed).

The reality is, to achieve your study goals you may need to give up on other things for a while. Whether that is social media, going out with friends every night, or binge watching Netflix, etc.

You need to commit, if you want it, then you can do it. The rewards will be better than the temporary deprivation of the other things.

I am not suggesting you lock yourself in a room for weeks on end; social interaction is important in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. So, if you plan well enough you will have time for the other stuff too, you just may need to cut it back a little.

By sticking to my schedule, I have been able to maintain a social life, work life, study life, gym time, and on good days, get to do my writing. I feel better for it, achieving more makes me feel productive and successful, you can feel that way too.

Stay motivated:

To keep going with your study, you need to stay motivated.

I am not going to lie, at the beginning of the semester and when I realised how much work I had to do, there were days when I wanted to give up. Days when my chest hurt, and I couldn’t breathe as I tried to think about how I was going to get it all done.

Those were the bad days. But I got through them by implementing the above steps. I stayed motivated because I am studying something that is linked to my passion. It is something I love, the units are interesting, and I feel like I am growing as a person as I learn.

I also found motivation in accomplishing and finishing my assignments and receiving feedback from my tutors. I received High Distinctions and Distinctions and realised that, yes I could do this, I was doing it!

Motivation is key to success. When the days come where you feel like you can’t do it, remember why you are doing it in the first place.

Final thoughts:

I am happy that I survived a semester of studying full-time uni while still working full-time. I am glad to know that I was able to do it and that my work and social life did not suffer.

Though, next semester I am doing two units instead of three, I know that because I was able to do three this semester (and receive high marks), that I am more than capable of doing two units each semester this year. I am one step closer to my goal of getting my Bachelor of Arts.

The important thing to remember through all of this is why you are doing it in the first place. Studying and working full time is hard and requires a level of commitment and motivation that is imperative to success.

By learning you are improving yourself and your life and are achieving something great. Use that to fuel the fire and keep going.

You will get there. You can do this.

© Sarah K. Gill, 2017