Life is all about balance. We all juggle work commitments with family, shoe horning in social engagements and events when we can, along with a healthy dose of rest and relaxation.

With such a fine balance achieved on a day to day basis, it doesn’t take much to upset the apple cart. Adding another important commitment can seem like sheer madness.

And yet we do it! And we invariably reach our goal, in some shape or form, and usually with success, but it can be tough.stress headache

So how do you balance work, life, family and a part-time course? How do you thrive in this challenging atmosphere and avoid being swamped by deadlines, goals and pressure?

Is there a secret to success, or is it a ‘take it every day as it comes’ approach that works best, battling problems and issues as they arise?

Firefighting or Strategy – Which is Best?
Living a busy and fulfilling life is just as much about having a plan as it is about dealing with problems. If you are one step behind all the time you will constantly feel like you are catching up, leaving you exhausted.

The solution then becomes ’something has to give.’ This often means ditching something you enjoy. Taking on another big commitment, such as home study courses, almost seems like a step too far.

So, how do you strike a balance between current commitments and home study? Here’s what our students told us worked for them.

  1. Have a plan… but be prepared to deviate

Home study courses will normally give you a rough guide to the number of hours expected to complete the course. Some qualifications will also go on to suggest a time frame, e.g. 360 hours over 12 months of study.

You can also set the time frame yourself. Hence, if you plan on completing the HLTA level 4 diploma, the expectation is that it will take you 240 hours. You will likely plan to complete the course within the 12-month time frame with tutor support. Divide 240 hours by 12 months and that gives you a monthly total of 20 hours, or roughly 5 hours of study a week.

Great! That’s doable, you think, and plough headlong into it. But then life happens.

man focusing

Christmas creeps up, and then birthday events and holidays, alongside juggling childcare and extra commitments at work. Don’t forget, these 5 hours study a week are nominal – there may be some concepts of the home study course you fly through with ease, and others that take you a lot more time.

You need a plan. From what our students tell us, this is one of the best ways to get to grips with and commit to any home study course, no matter what level the qualification.

THE BALANCE – Be prepared to deviate. This means looking forward and understanding what commitments you have and when, and working around them. If you ‘give’ study hours to something, where can you recoup this time in future weeks?

  1. Stay organised

Another tip that our students give us is to get organised and – more importantly – stay organised!

There are many ways of doing this, including:

 

 

 

THE BALANCE – Being organised means that you pay attention not just to your study but to other aspects of your life, too. Unfortunately, there will be times that your studies will take a back seat but equally, there will need to be times that you push your study obligations to the fore.

  1. Time to Play

Unfortunately, our sights can be so firmly set on reaching our goals that our vision becomes clouded. It is also true to say that becoming too consumed by working and studying means that we lose focus of the bigger picture.

You may think that studying for hours on end is productive, but research shows that long periods of time knee-deep in books and study can lower our productivity levels. Not only that, it can also diminish the quality of our work.

So, what’s the answer?

Our students tell us that factoring in time to relax and ‘switch off’ is a great way to make sure that productivity levels stay high and that the quality of the work stays high, too.Our students came up with all kinds of ideas:

 

 

 

 

THE BALANCE – time to kick back and relax is not just about your studying endeavours but about work and across life in general. Having a short break from your work helps your mind to re-focus on what needs to be done to not only reach the next milestone but reach it in the best way possible.

  1. Commit, but Be Kind to Yourself!

Finally, many of our students talked a lot about not just committing to home study courses, but also being kind to yourself.

On one hand, we realise that to get the promotion we have always wanted or to take our career paths to higher heights, you need to commit to getting the right qualifications. Students all over the world tell the same story. To get the job they want, they need the skills, and that means choosing and applying for a place on an accredited course.
It does take determination, commitment and a certain amount of tunnel vision to get the qualifications you want. It will mean switching off your favourite TV programme or swapping the latest bestseller for course materials. It will also mean sacrificing social time for an hour or two with your ‘head in the books’.

These challenges and opportunities are a part and parcel of reaching your goals, because just as your course will equip you with new skills, so will the process of studying.

But, there are times when we ‘weaken’. We do read the novel or watch the TV, and we don’t complete the work or tasks we set ourselves for that evening or that chunk of time.

This doesn’t mean you have to punish or berate yourself. If you had a vase of beautiful flowers and you noticed one wilting flower, you wouldn’t throw the whole bunch away, would you? You would remove that one flower and keep the rest to admire.

THE BALANCE – Your study is that vase of flowers. If you miss one session of your study calendar, don’t throw the rest of the week or your timetable away. Start your next session by picking up where you left off.
Enjoy your course and the opportunities it will bring during and after you successfully complete it!

Getting yourself organised before you start any home learning courses is an essential study skill. Being methodical in your study approach helps to keep procrastination at bay, but also helps to keep stress levels low and the end in sight.

So, what do you need to know to stay organised?

A Place to Study
Finding a suitable place to work and study is a challenge for most people. You may find you just can’t work with the background noise of the radio, catchy cartoon jingles, or your kids arguing with each other.

We can all become rigid in the ‘right’ places to study, probably as a result of many years of sitting at the same desk in the same classroom at the same school. However, in recent years, the art of studying has become more relaxed with a wider understanding that sometimes, being seated at a desk for hours on end is not the right place for some students.

You need to understand what works best for you. There may be a quiet space at work you enjoy in which could grab an hour or two every now and then. Public spaces such as libraries are also great for quiet study. Even snatching 20 minutes reading an article or surfing the web for research on your daily commute will help you fit in your studies.

IMPORTANT – maintain a flexibility to your approach to your place of study and recognise that no matter where you study, you are still working hard and gaining a valuable qualification.

3 Key Questions

The Study Environment – The Practicalities

The ‘where’ of studying has many practical and personal considerations, but it is important that you have space to spend time on your studies. At times in your course, you will need to submit assignments or coursework for marking. With a looming deadline, you will need to get your head down in order to complete the work.

But there are some practical considerations;

3 Key Questions

When to Study
Part of being organised is knowing when to take advantage of time, and that means working at a time that suits you, but that also allows you access to the place where you study best.

Some students draw up a timetable. This can be a monthly timetable or a schedule that lasts for the duration of a module or course unit.

It identifies the core times that you know you can work without distraction and that fits with work, life and family commitments.

By organising your time and schedule, you also organise your workload. This means you prevent the stockpiling of work before a key date or deadline, spreading your work and studies out across a wider timeframe.

When the volume of work becomes too much, it can seem like an unconquerable mountain. This leads to procrastination, and this can lead to you not completing your studies. By organising the place you study and organising your time, you can manage your studies more effectively.

3 Key Questions

Support Network

Studying is a challenge, but when you get your certificate through the post, earn the promotion or start the first day of your new job, the rewards are worth it.

With our range of home learning courses, all students get 12 months of expert tutor support. Our best tip is this: tap into this support and use the expert knowledge of your tutor to enhance not only your studies, but your organisation of your work.

It sounds an ideal solution – studying at home whilst still working, ferrying the kids to school and after school activities, cooking tea, the shopping… the list goes on.

The truth is, we are all busy people and it can seem like there is little or no capacity for extra commitments such as studying. But many people have begun successfully studying at home and you can too.

There does need to be a dose of realism however, and that means understanding that in order for your home learning to be a success, there needs to be a few changes.

Here are five tips that our students tell us work and have been contributing factors in successfully studying from home.

#1 Distractions

Top of the list are all the distractions that you face.

tools for studying at home

It takes time and determination, as well as establishing a routine to be able to commit to your course.

Think of a household chore you hate doing – unblocking the hair trap in the shower, vacuuming, cleaning the drains etc. – and now imagine you have a choice: write the tutor-mark assignment for the module you have just studied or unblock the drains. Which would you choose?

Surprisingly, you would rather do anything, like clean drains, than sit at your laptop or PC typing out your assignment!

Distractions are everywhere. Despite our best intentions, they can and do get the better of us. But what do our students suggest?

Overwhelmingly, the answer was to identify what potential distractions there are, that could prevent you from completing your home learning course.

They are different for everyone but a few of our students mentioned: switching off mobile phones and not checking emails when working online. They also talked about how limited time can be the driving force behind getting work completed.

#2 Time

It has a habit of slipping away with us or, when we are doing something we least enjoy – like sitting in an exam – the minute hand seems to tick very slowly.

But you can use it to your advantage when studying at home. There is one tool that may be of help to you: a stopwatch. Some people are happy to read, study, write and so on for hours on end but others find this unappealing. They use a stopwatch or timer.

Try this: set 20 minutes on a timer – use your phone or a kitchen timer – aim to get as much done in that time as you can. Take a break for five minutes once the time has elapsed and then start again for another 20 minutes.

Many people find this a great way of getting the most from their study time, as well as a fantastic study habit that helps them in the future.

#3 Support

Starting something new and as important as furthering your skill set and education requires support. And this can come from various sources;

#4 Space

For anyone considering home learning, this fourth tip also comes direct from our students. You must have space for your work too.

You may enjoy reading on the sofa, making notes on course materials and so on, but there does come a time when you need to have space to complete your work. This means sitting at the kitchen table, or investing a desk and a lamp for late night essays.

man studying at home on laptop

Starting something new and as important as furthering your skill set and education requires support

Your studies are important; give it the space that it deserves.

#5 Commitment and Determination

It takes time and determination, as well as establishing a routine to be able to commit to your course when studying at home.

This means ‘making’ time and space to work. It can also means forgoing some things, such as instead of the latest best seller, you read a text book or academic journals instead.

But the commitment, the dogged determination and the struggle – there will be moments of struggle, as well as great triumph – will result in success and an enormous feeling of achievement.