There is a common saying that goes- once you start working at a full-time job, you do not return to the books and studying. There comes a lot of responsibilities with your employment, and the academics, too, demand for attention.
Before we get to the solution, let’s see what the hurdles that set back your dream to study along with a full-time job are?
- Full-time employment requires a lot of hard work and dedication. They also demand mental strength that ends up leaving you drained and tired.
- Since you are working full-time, your mind is jumbled with a million things that need to be completed, and some meetings cannot be missed. The most common hiccup that people complain about is the loss of focus and concentration.
According to an article by The Guardian, research conducted in August 2018 on the Ofcom, a telecom regulator based in the UK, people check their smartphones every 12 minutes when they were awake on average, while 71% never turn their screens off and a staggering 40% claim that they check their phone within 5 minutes of waking up. These distractions increase manifold when you are employed full time. This distraction is a huge reason behind failing to study when working.
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- Assignments and deadlines are an inevitable part of any academic course. The deadlines that were once easily met by burning the midnight oil, they become more of a struggle for those who are tired and drained of energy from working.
To grow in your career graphs, higher education, like management courses are equally important. Management courses that are online act as a cherry on the cake for the full time employed people. While there are offline conventional MBA courses, there are professional learning companies that offer digital campuses for an online management course. Great learning is one of such companies that provide Executive Post Graduation Program in Management or Executive PGPM.
So how to juggle a full-time job while getting your online management certification?
Time management
Set yourself a schedule and divide your days accordingly. Give enough time for studying as well as working. It would be best if you were honest with your academic commitments. Proper time management is very crucial when you want to pursue both studies and work to draw a clear demarcation between them.
Limit distractions
Like we discussed, distractions are another primary reason that we struggle with, in our everyday lives. Distractions are the barriers that often act as a speed breaker wherever placed, be it when driving, exercising or studying. We have become so volatile and impatient that we need to turn to distractions like the television or our smartphones to divert our attention. These have become escape windows that help us escape the hard work and cut short our struggle story.
When studying for your management course, you need to focus and concentrate more than what you did back in the college days before getting employed. You have responsibilities to shoulder and work expectations to meet. Learning when working is an everyday task, but studying when working needs you to be devoted and focussed.
To avoid the distractions from distracting you, you should turn off the television and limit the usage of phones. Not only that, but you should also create a boundary of dedication that should be respected by you.
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Communication is the key
Communicate with your employer regarding your plans. Clear and honest communication will reflect two things, your dedication and devotion towards your profession and career as well as the motivation to improve your skills. Not only that, there are ways in which your employer and the company can help you too. It could be financially, and by giving you enough time and paid leaves.
You are important
It would be best if you never forgot this. In the race to juggle both worlds perfectly and achieve, you will end up losing yourself in the process. Work work, no play, makes Jack a dull boy. Indeed that is true. It would be best if you took time out of your day and schedule to relax and take a ‘me-time’. It would be best if you slept not and adequately compromise with your sleep schedule.
Optimum use of vacations and sick leaves
You should plan your calendar ahead of time. When planning to study, you should always check the work calendar in advance. Whether you have important meetings that need to be attended or there are busy days that are coming up, you should make optimum use of your vacations and sick leaves to make up for the lost days.
Talking to your colleagues and office mates will also help you get the support that you might need in the crunch times. That would also mean the growth of your network and help you increase connectivity.
This brings us to the end of the blog on how to juggle a full-time job while getting your online management course. We hope that you were able to gain some insights from the blog. If you wish to learn more about management, you can join Great Learning’s Executive PG Program in Management or ePGPM and upskill today!
