Juggling Master's degree and life

I work full time and have a super busy life. I am about to begin an online Master's degree at the end of this month. I am a little afraid of juggling this project and all of the other stuff in my life. I know people do this all the time and succeed, etc. Does anyone have any advice on the best way to go about this without cracking up and going insane?:wave:

 

Take 1 or 2 courses a term. I found ASU's 7 week terms very helpful. I could do 1 or 2 if i'm up for it for each 7 week cycle. but mine was an undergraduate program. you prob would want to do 1 course each term if possible to balance it out.

 

Your family will need to learn that just because you're home it doesn't mean your available.
Your friends will need to learn that just because it's the weekend doesn't mean you're available.
Everyone will have to learn that just because you've become a bit of a recluse you're not angry at them.
Everyone will have to learn to live without you sometimes.
You will have to learn to live without them sometimes.
You will have to learn that you can only fit a gallon of water into a gallon jug.
You will have to learn that sleep is a valuable commondity.
You will have to learn that insanity is sometimes temporary.
Good luck.

 

Everybody has different life situation, so it cannot be specific to individual. The best way is taking 1 class on the first term of the program. If you think you can hack for one more class, then take 2 classes on second term and so on. Do you take more than 2 classes at the time because you will never known what will happen.

Whenever you have free time, try to complete your assignment/project prior to due date. Since you are working full-time and having a family, you will never known what will happen when your assignment of your deadline.

I took 2 classes last semester at Nova while dealing full-time job, full-time father of 3 todlers. In November 2014 during the finals, and final researches; my life completely changed. I found out my wife infidelity, and children neglecgence; now, I am going through divorce and my children are currently with the Child Protective Services. I also just bought the house, and the date of signing the papers for house all of these started to happened.

 

I juggled to finish my BS last year and I'm juggling now to do my Masters. I think you have to really schedule/plan time to do your online studying and stick with it. There were certain times when I would shut my office door and everyone knew I was studying. I also went to Starbucks to study when things were crazy at the house. I was realistic knowing that I couldn't study everyday, so I planned for two evenings a week and then a block time on Sundays.

 

I finished my Masters in August; 2 courses per term, one in the first Summer and my last Semester was spent on the dissertation; I was a busy lad (all technical courses) with not a whole lot of free / down time - time management combined with making sure you have a very good work/life balance are instrumental in success.

 

Take 1 class at a time to get a feel for how hard it's going to be. You can always ramp it up.
IMO, you don't need perfect grades. There are an infinite number of things in life that are more important than obsessing over a 3.25 vs 3.75.
My advice is actually the opposite of Kizmet, so clearly there is more than one way to get this done. I have 4 children, so I mainly did school at night, but when I had to decide between homework or a watching their baseball game, the baseball game won every time because I had a rule that I tried to follow (imperfectly, but still) and that was when I signed up for the "hard work and sacrifice" that it would be my hard work and sacrifice- not everyone else's. So, I didn't skip dinners, I didn't skip attention to the hubby, etc. I blocked out a window for dedicated school time (usually Sundays) but I worked harder to preserve my family than my grades; let's get real, it's just school. My family and marriage are forever. Keep it in line and you'll do great!

Good luck!

EDIT- I wanted to say that I ended up with very good grades, the difference was the brain space dedicated to that pursuit was much smaller than during my undergrad (except my thesis, which required a ton of work, but after 1 1/2 years of not asking a lot of my family, they were happy to give me the extra time at the end).

 

Definitely work your way up with one class. If you are able to balance the class with ease: take more. There's also the stagger method depending on the college schedule. If you have eight week classes for example, take a new class every four weeks if you can balance it.

- Make dedicated blocks for study. Nothing feels worse than being minutes from a deadline.

 

I'll chime in and add my 2 cents worth of comments. I agree with everything that is being said by our other members. The key is balance, and how to strike that perfect balance. Which in your case only you can answer that question. Having said that, take one class and see how you handle it. If you do fine with one class and feel that you could do two, then add the second class.

I'm currently finishing my residency period of my MFA program and I tend to block two hours per day as reading/writing time. My family respects those boundaries and that has worked thus far. Your family and friends play an important role, and keeping them on the loop definitely helps. Good luck to you.