Are you currently working full time and in school earning a master’s degree? If so, do learn these time management skills to balance your personal and professional life.
Honing time management skills can help you balance your personal and professional life
Are you currently working full time and in school earning a master’s degree? If so, do you think you are giving the appropriate amount of time to your job, studies and personal life? Many working life sciences professionals believe that obtaining another degree is vital in achieving their career goals. Unfortunately, a lot of people doubt whether they can successfully balance their schedule to get everything done, and that prevents them from even applying to graduate school.
In the past, we’ve covered how to know if you should get a master’s degree. Once you’ve made the decision to get a graduate degree, planning out how everything will get done can be a major hurdle for life science professionals. How much time should you be dedicating to your studies? Can you even have a personal life while studying for your master’s degree? Will your job performance or grades suffer because you are trying to do too many things? These questions can be a source of frustration, if they aren’t figured out. Here are four ways to balance your schedule when working and getting a master’s degree!
Hone these Time Management Skills To Manage Your Time
- Enhance your time management skills
How have you managed your time in the past? Do you usually find a way to get all of your tasks and projects completed? Or are there many things left undone on your to do list? For many working professionals, getting their graduate degree is a very different experience than when they were in school for their undergraduate degree. Now, they have more demands for their time than a typical full-time student. Improving your time management skills is the first step to balancing your schedule. What tasks can you delegate to other people? Make a list of the things you can do to free up your time and be more efficient.
- Create time blocks
The concept of time blocking involves putting similar activities and projects together that you work on for set (or extended) periods of time. This requires that you plan out your tasks and day in advance, so that you can focus on one thing, project, or topic. Research has consistently shown that multi-tasking is not as effective as focused time on one activity. Utilizing time blocks in your schedule also helps you avoid distractions. At a basic level, you could create time blocks in your schedule for work, studying, and personal time. From there, you can further break each of those time blocks down into specific projects or tasks. It is one of the important time management skills that can enhance your focus on tasks.
- Use your calendar and stick to it
Most professionals use a calendar of some kind to stay organized with meetings, projects, and tasks at work. Generally, the degree to which the calendar is actually used depends on the person. When you are a graduate student, maximizing your time is even more important. In addition to their work calendar, some people have a separate calendar for their studies and personal activities. With technology today, many people can combine all of their calendars together in one place via an app or desktop software program. Inputting your time blocks on your calendar, simplifies your schedule. Merely having a calendar isn’t enough. You must actually use it and stick to your scheduled commitments.
- Communicate your availability and schedule to colleagues, family and friends
Now that you’ve done all of this planning and put effort into setting yourself up for success with balancing your schedule, you must communicate it to others. The people in your life need to have an idea of what commitments you’ve made so they can support you. Talking about your availability also establishes boundaries, while reinforcing your decision to continue your education. It helps the important people know that there isn’t anything personal behind why you might not be able to participate in the events and gatherings that you did in the past. Many people will appreciate your transparency in sharing your schedule and will help you to enhance your time management skills.
Coordinating your schedule and achieving some semblance of work life balance is a goal for many professionals. However, it’s even more important for people who are employed full time and pursuing a master’s degree. Improving your time management skills will help with actually completing the large amount of things that need to be done. Separating your activities and projects into time blocks is a good strategy to promote more focused thought and higher quality work. Utilizing a calendar (or multiple calendars) and sticking to what is scheduled is also a best practice. Finally, communicating the changes to your schedule and availability to those close to you can help with creating a support system. What is one thing you could do to balance your schedule?
Porschia Parker-Griffin is a Certified Coach, Professional Resume Writer, and Founder of Fly High Coaching. (https://www.fly-highcoaching.com) She empowers ambitious professionals and motivated executives to add $10K on average to their salaries.
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