I’ve made no secret of the fact that teachers work a hell of a lot. Sometimes, I struggle to imagine a life where I don’t need to work on the weekends, even if the amount that I do has fallen the longer I’ve been teaching.
Obviously, then, I figured that it would be a great idea to add to my very empty plate by returning to study at the University of Birmingham. For a Master’s degree.
Yeah, I know: crazy. But, actually, very doable. Here’s how I did it.
Study little-by-little
Do not do all of your work the week before it’s due.
I was given that advice by my lecturers and we give it to the kids whose coursework projects we offer guidance on, but it’s important enough to write it twice: do not do all of your work the week before it’s due.
I thought I’d paced out my work throughout the year but, actually, I still had a lot to do a month or so before the deadline. I was then going off on holiday to lots of different places during the summer holidays, so fitting in studying was pretty difficult. I did it, but it involved a lot of work.
Plan, right from the start, when you’re going to study – and stick to it, even if it’s only an hour a week every Sunday. You will thank yourself later on.
Teach your heart out (while studying)
Don’t forget your full-time job: teaching (or whatever profession you’re lucky enough to be doing). Studying part-time alongside a full-time job is tricky with balancing everything (including a social life), but it’s important that the studying doesn’t take over your life completely.
Yes, you should ear-mark a time slot for it every single week, but sometimes you might need to sacrifice this for the sake of your job. As long as you’re able to rebalance priorities at a later date to stay on top of things, you shouldn’t run into any issues.
Plan to study every week
Whatever time management system you prefer, find one that works and stick to it. Nine years on, I still put everything into my Bullet Journal. I’ve got so many fool-proof guides for how I use my BuJo which you can read, but the most important parts are, basically, just to-do lists. Record your daily tasks, make weekly tasks (as in, what needs to be done by the end of the week, but not necessarily today?) and set out what you need to do tomorrow before you go to bed tonight – and you’ll all but guarantee a clear, organised state-of-mind the next day.
If Bullet Journals don’t do it for you, that doesn’t matter. Pick another system for recording what needs to be done and use that. Equally, create a really good plan for your work and then stick to it. Alter and adapt it if you need to. Create a plan for your essay, or your report, or your thesis by breaking it down into smaller sections and subsections. I say this to my EPQ students all the time: a 5000-word dissertation becomes a lot smaller if you break it into an intro (300 words), conclusion (500 words) and main body (4200 words). And then the main body could be broken into three subsections, totalling 1400 words each. Then maybe you have 300-word subsections.
300 words is a lot more doable than a beefy, 5000-word, essay.
What do you do to study part-time while working full-time?
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Hardly Hamilton 
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