Perhaps it’s been a while since you set foot in a classroom, but now, you’re ready to further your education. If you need to brush up on your study skills, implement an organizational system, and create a schedule to get all of your work done, these tips can help!
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Table of Contents
Set Up a Workspace
First things first: You need a dedicated space where you can concentrate on your coursework without interruption. Whether you decide to set up a home office, or simply work at your kitchen table, you’ll want to keep this space tidy and organized. If your desk is getting cluttered, Horderly recommends choosing a “home” for each item, and always putting it back there.
Use a Planner
When you’re working full-time, making sure that you turn in all of your deliverables and meet all of your deadlines is hard enough – but when you’re juggling a certification or coursework, you’ll definitely want to use a planner to avoid missing any important dates. You can choose any planner you want, or simply get a blank notebook. As long as you check your planner each day, and jot down any important tasks and dates, a basic planner will suffice!
You may want to block off a few minutes each morning and evening to look over your planner. You’ll be able to get an overview of everything you need to do today, tomorrow, and the upcoming week. That way, you won’t be caught off guard by any key tasks.
Create a Schedule
Creating a weekly schedule is the key to making time for everything you need to do. Without a schedule, you might find yourself floundering on a daily basis. Rather than trying to figure out when you’ll get assignments done on the fly, laying out a schedule will help you manage your time. If you have a lot on your plate, how can you create a schedule that accounts for all of your obligations? The Spruce recommends determining when you’re most productive and checking the most important items off of your daily to-do list during that time. For instance, if you have lots of energy in the morning, consider getting up earlier to give yourself extra time before work so that you can knock out some studying or school assignments.
Storing Important Documents
Whether you’re taking college classes online, or tackling a professional certification, you’re probably going over lots of course documents. This may include everything from your enrollment information to documents related to your student loans — paperwork has a tendency to stack up fast. If you’re always searching through your inbox to find the important documents you need or logging back into your online course modules to look at study materials, you would probably be better off downloading these documents when you receive them and storing them in a specific folder in a cloud storage system.
Jerry’s Note: As a mature student going through my master’s program a few years ago, it was helpful to have all my work in one location. Initially, Dropbox made sense because I was already using it. It became necessary to switch and move files to Google Drive which was heavily used by my professors and my classmates.
Keeping Digital Notes
Maybe you’ve been taking great notes – but what if you need to update them with new information throughout the course? For instance, you might’ve created a PDF study guide, only to realize that you need to correct some information. If you’re wondering how to edit PDF files, you can use a PDF editor to easily make the changes you need. All you have to do is upload the file online, implement the changes, and then download it. You can even share it with your classmates if you want!
Keeping up with continuing education while working full-time can be challenging. But with the right approach, you can handle your professional responsibilities while investing in your education. By following these tips, you’ll be able to complete your coursework with ease.
Written by guest blogger Justin Bennett, [email protected]. You can read more from Justin here, 8 Mental Health Strategies That Might Surprise You.
