I know that, from my own experience and from talking to other students, the task of juggling study time with work/family/social commitments can be quite stressful. When I was studying for my MA it took me quite some time to find ways to make the juggling act easier, and conversations with other students have since thrown up other ways in which I could have perhaps supported myself more effectively. So this article is a compilation of the hints and tips I’ve learnt, or been given, along the way. Hopefully, they will help you make the best of your learning experience and enable you to keep your stress levels to a minimum.

By the way, if you have any other ‘golden nuggets’ of advice in this area please let us know and we will try to include them on the website.

Plan, Plan and Plan Some More

A student I interviewed recently said: “if you fail to plan you plan to fail”. Whilst I’m not suggesting that lack of planning means that you will automatically fail your course, I do think that getting into a planning mindset can certainly help you study more efficiently. I vividly remember spending a half-term holiday stuck in a chalet at Centre Parks, trying desperately to get an essay finished, and all because I hadn’t sat down with the diary and worked out that the essay deadline coincided with the end of the holiday!

So my first advice would be to draw up a time plan that encompasses all your academic commitments over the forthcoming week/term/year together with your personal/family/work ones. Be as detailed as you can, especially when it comes to your weekly plan. Incorporate necessary reading time and make sure you build in relaxation time. If you can get yourself into the habit of developing a timetable you will find it easier to develop the time management skills necessary to juggle all the essential elements in your life.

Work Out Your Study Preference

When I was writing my dissertation I used to feel guilty that I tended to waste a couple of hours each morning in what seemed like ‘work avoidance’, i.e. watching TV, doing the crossword, tidying up, etc. I eventually realised that I’m not really a ‘morning person’. I just don’t normally get into full-on work mode until mid-morning and it took me a while to accept that this was simply my way of working.

So, think about when you prefer to get down to work and build this into your weekly plan. I was lucky in the sense that I wasn’t in employment at the time I did my degree, and with my daughter at school, I had a fair slot of time during the day to use as study time. If you don’t have the luxury of choosing your ideal study time, maybe because of job or family commitments, try to get into a new habit in respect of study time. Set the alarm half an hour earlier and use the time to read or write a paragraph of your essay. Or discipline yourself to sit at the computer, even if it’s just for 15 minutes to begin with, after the kids have gone to bed.

Review and Learn

A student who read this article agreed strongly with the two points above but had a good piece of advice to add. Whilst planning is absolutely essential she argues that life doesn’t always go to plan and so it’s important to be both realistic and flexible, particularly as you work through that first term and start to experience, rather than simply imagine, the ups and down of study. For example, you may have planned for the fact that an essay would take a couple of days to write, but discovered that it took twice that amount of time. Or you signed up for your course with the expectation that you could study after work, only to find that you are too knackered to concentrate or the kids need the computer for their homework.

So I guess the message is to keep reviewing your plan and build in any changes in assumptions that you’ve had to make along the way, so that you stay in control of your time (and your sanity) as the academic year progresses.

Talk to Your Family and Friends

So many students have stressed this as a critical factor in minimising the tensions that inevitably arise when you take on the commitment of a new course. My advice would be that, once you’ve got a feel for the physical requirements of your course, sit down with the people around you who may be affected (partner, children, friends, work colleagues, etc.) and explain what it might mean for them and you. If, for example, there’s a potential clash of priorities, such as the need to use the family computer, try to work out a compromise solution, such as devising a rota.

Inevitably there will be times when, despite your best juggling and planning efforts, the unexpected happens – your partner is snowed under with work and the cat suddenly needs to go to the vet on the day your essay is due; work calls and asks you to work extra hours because of staff sickness the day before you have to give a seminar presentation: and so on. My only advice is to keep talking. Keep talking to your family, keep your boss in the picture, and explain to your friends why you can no longer make every Friday night in the pub! Get them to understand how much your study means to you, whilst listening to, and acknowledging, their needs as well. Hopefully, when the crises occur, everyone will be more willing to ‘muck in’ and solve the problem, rather than get resentful.

Get into the Reading Habit – and stay there!

An essential part of any course is the ability to assimilate a lot of new information, ideas or arguments. And, sometimes, to do it quickly. In one of David’s articles he talks about the need to avoid ‘over-reading’, especially in the weeks leading up to the start of your course. And I agree. Before my course began I tried cramming in too many Shakespeare plays until it got to the point that they melted into a vague morass of characters, plot lines and endings. I couldn’t (and still can’t) tell you the difference between Henry VI part one and Henry IV part two!

However, I do think there’s value in getting into the habit of reading on a daily basis, if only for a short period each day, especially if you’ve been away from the world of education for a while. If you can get access to some of the books on your course reading list, so much the better – it will help you begin to think about some of the subjects, themes and arguments you will encounter once term begins.

But even if it’s the latest chick-lit novel or yesterday’s newspaper, the more often you read the more proficient you will become at ‘speed-reading’. By ‘speed-reading’ I mean the ability to scan a page and pick out the key points without getting bogged down with every word on the page. This comes in very handy in the weeks when you are trying to do research for an essay whilst ensuring you’ve also covered the required reading for next week’s seminar. And I know from my own experience that it gets easier with practice (and necessity!).

One tip passed on to me by another student is about keeping the reading ‘engine’ ticking over throughout the year, especially in those blissful end of term breaks or summer hols, when the temptation is to switch off completely. She actually found it much easier to get back into course work, as each term started, when she’d done a bit of reading each day than when she’d taken a total break from over the holiday period.

Creating a Study Space

If you are lucky, you will have your own private study area, complete with a desk, pc, filing system and bookshelves you don’t have to share with anyone else. For many people this is a fantasy rather than a reality. Whether you have to share the pc with your kids, or your room in your house-share is so small you don’t have a desk, finding that quiet space can be a nightmare. But, if, for whatever reason you have to share your study facilities with others, it is still possible to maximise what you have with a bit of thought and discussion.

First of all, test out how much noise/interruption you can cope with. I realised my tolerance level for noise was pretty low when I attempted to write my first essay on our family computer, which was located in the lounge at the time, whilst listening to my daughter playing “Yellow Submarine” on her violin (I couldn’t really tell her to stop because I’d been nagging her to do some practice for weeks!). In the end we moved the computer up into the spare-room-cum-junk-room, and although it meant negotiating a myriad of obstacles (from shoeboxes to disused lampshades) every morning, I now had a relatively quiet haven for my work. On the other hand, and contrary to all the advice from her school, my daughter seems incapable of doing her homework unless she has music on, at the same time as chatting to her friends on MSN.

If you don’t have the luxury of a separate study room, and you need silence rather than the Scissor Sisters when you are working, think about investing in a laptop as a solution – at least you can retreat to quieter areas of the house at different times of the day (and they have come down hugely in price over the last couple of years). Otherwise try to re-work your study timetable – as I said in an earlier point – try getting up earlier or gradually wean yourself into the habit of working later in the evening. If you have to share the computer, devise a rota that everyone affected can cope with. Anticipate when you will perhaps need more than your daily slot of time and talk to others in advance (and be flexible when they need the same).

I’m a fairly disorganised person, so it wasn’t uncommon to find my research notes and relevant reading material scattered all over the house. Fortunately my family is equally untidy so it actually annoyed me more than it did them, because I was constantly searching for the elusive piece of paper that contained the all-important quote (the day before an essay deadline), which I was sure I’d left on the dining table. Eventually I bit the bullet, bought a cheap filing cabinet from a second-hand shop and used that to store my coursework. The inside of the cabinet remained messy but at least I knew that the elusive piece of paper would be in there somewhere! So my advice would be to learn from my mistake and set yourself up with a system/place for storing your work and keep it up to date as you go. It doesn’t have to be expensive, or enormous, a few box-files by the bed will do.

Don’t get stressed about the Stress

However competent you are at planning, managing your time and organising your work, there will be times when your stress levels hit the roof. Essay deadlines, ever-rising mountains of reading, worries about what to revise for your end of year exams, can in themselves be huge stress factors. Combined with all the other day-to day stressors – looking after a family, having to work to pay fees – it would be natural for anyone to feel anxious about getting through the term!

I don’t have a magic solution, but I do think that you have more chance of getting through with your sanity intact if you do take some time at the start to plan ahead and get yourself organised. Also, as someone said to me recently, having the right mindset helps enormously. If you accept that there will be peaks and troughs of work, then accept that there will be peaks and troughs of stress. Remind yourself that it’s okay to feel stressed at times and that you will get through it if you keep a clear head.

And don’t forget that, if it does feel like everything is getting on top of you, TALK TO SOMEONE! If you are really struggling to keep on top of the work don’t leave it until you are at your wit’s end – talk to your tutor, they can help you find a way to work it out. If you are stressed by work or personal problems find a sympathetic friend to chat to, or contact the Welfare Officer – often talking it through with someone else can give you a different perspective on the size/nature of the problem, or will offer a solution you hadn’t thought of yourself.