Studying while you work is hard. A course, a language or an exam competes with a job, family and everything else. Most people who drop out don't lack ability. They set a plan that didn't fit their life, fell behind, and stopped.
The answer is a study goal sized for the life you actually have.
Start with the finish line
Write the study goal as a SMART goal, with a clear end point and a date.
"Pass the Certificate IV assessment by 30 November."
"Reach conversational Spanish, about level B1, by the end of next year."
If there's an exam or deadline, work back from it. If there isn't, set one. A goal without a date drifts.
Set a realistic schedule
Your schedule has to be realistic in two ways. It has to leave time for the rest of your life, and it has to give you enough time to make progress.
Set a ceiling
Decide the most time you'll spend on a typical weekday. For most people with a full-time job, that's no more than an hour or two, and less with a young family. Plan for the week you really have, not an ideal one.
Set a floor
Decide the least you'll do, even in a bad week. For skill-building goals like a language or an instrument, a short daily session beats a long weekly one. Even 20 minutes keeps the thread.
Put it in the week
Pick specific times: "Tuesday and Thursday, 7 to 8 pm" or "20 minutes on the train each morning". A time slot is far more likely to happen than "sometime this week".
Build in slack
Life happens. A late night at work, a sick child, a busy month. Plan for it:
- Aim a little above your floor on normal days, so one missed session can be made up.
- For exams and courses, add buffer weeks before the deadline. If you need ten weeks of study, start twelve weeks out.
- When you fall behind, move the dates. Don't try to cram three missed weeks into one. Push the plan out and carry on.
Let it ebb and flow
Some months you'll have more time, some less. That's fine. The trick is to keep study moving, even slowly, so it never stops completely. Restarting after a long break is much harder than keeping a small habit going.
Track and reflect
Tick off each session. At the end of the week, write a line about how it went: what you covered, what was hard, what's next. Over a term, those notes show your progress and the times that work best for you.
Tell the people you live with
Your study time affects the people around you. Tell them your schedule, so the time is protected and they know when you're free.
In Lifetick
Add your study goal, then a repeating task for each study session, such as every weekday or Mon-Wed-Fri, with an email reminder. When a busy month knocks you off course, you can move a goal and all its open tasks later in one go. A short journal note each week keeps a record of how it's going.
See Add tasks, dates and reminders, Move due dates in bulk and Write in your journal. For school students, read Goal setting for students.
Start with one goal
Lifetick is free on iPhone and the web, and five quick questions make it a SMART goal.
