How I Consistently Study with a Full Time Job: My Scheduling Formula

Also I have a good tip for anyone reading: if you’re struggling with procrastination for a task, list out the active steps that you will need to do to get that task done. For example, if you’re procrastinating food prepping, you may write out: put on shoes, get in car, drive to grocery store, buy (list) food, drive back, chop veggies, etc. Breaking it down and imagining yourself doing it helps it actually happen.

I was in college straight for 3 years and graduated with my bachelor’s degree and no student loan last October 2021. I must admit I feel like the weight on my shoulders was lifted off the moment I submitted my very last assignment knowing that I can finally breathe, sleep, and live my life not worrying and stressing about exams and writing papers. For those of you still in school, keep pushing and there’s a light at the end of the tunnel even if you think it’s still so far away.

Is it just me or she speaks in 1.5X speed

Here are the notes I took in case someone else finds them helpful: I. 3 part-split Divide your day into 3 parts accounting for your energy levels throughout the day and how much harder it is for you to avoid distractions at other times of the day. 1. Part 1. High Energy + High Temptation. Aka activities that you don’t enjoy that much + require brain power & time - Ex: studying for an exam, working on projects you’ve been procrastinating on 2. Part two. High Energy + Low Temptation. Aka enjoyable activities that require a time commitment. - Example: going to the gym, doing fun research. 3. Part Three. Low Energy + Low Temptation. Aka fun activities that don’t require that much time or energy. - Example: personal creative projects, reading, or watching a series. II. Mission impossible rule Set reminders so that you remember a task exists - Having a reminder for a task might motivate you to get it done. But do not force yourself to finish unenjoyable tasks just for the sake of it though. III. The PR Rule “Work expands to fill the time allocated to it” - Parkinson and Roosevelt. The quality of an essay that took you 3 days, 3 weeks, or 3 months to write is often very similar. 1. Give yourself a crazy tight deadline to complete the task. It might lead you to hyper-focus and surprise yourself. - Example: give yourself 2 hours to complete a big task like creating a marketing plan. 2. Include the finished product in your calendar, not all the small steps you need to accomplish. IV. Morning Glory Rule Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - He stated that people who are very creative and effective in their lives all start their day with something small they were really looking forward to. I.e. making their favorite breakfast, calling a loved one, spending 5 minutes in nature soaking up the sun, etc. - You should have your sacred morning time that you respect every day and don’t schedule anything during it. V. The Fun Factor Struggle cannot be avoided, but struggling too much or doing too many unenjoyable tasks might negatively affect us and our quality of life in the long run. - Schedule fun activities for you to do solo or with friends at least once a week. - Example: taking yourself out to dinner or the movies, meeting up with friends, going to an art gallery VI. Strategically Over-scheduling Gawande - We tend to forget about smaller tasks when we don’t externalize/write them down somewhere - It’s essential to write down all the things you need to do and all the things you want to do to remember them - Overbook your calendar because it relieves your brain from having to memorize and remember these things at all times.

Not gonna lie, your 2019 calendar made me question what I'm doing with my life lol The editing is so engaging and fluid and makes the points hit home more. So many useful gems to incorporate in my life. Using a calendar as a guide of what we want our lives to look like is a great philosophy to live by. I like the sound of "positive pressure." I'm happy that I'm not the only one who struggles to pronounce some of these names 😅The Fun Factor definitely makes the day more enjoyable. Excellent insights, Liz!

This Calender is probably most helpful for people with ADHD. Creative people who need to relieve their brain. People who forget to socialize and connect with people and people who hyper focus when they are less tired. And oeople who think as fast as you 🙏. Thanx for sharing x🧡

I am probably twice your age, but the amount of wisdom you've shared that has had a massive and positive impact on the way I live my life is astounding.

For the people that feel bad they never do enough, here is something that I learned in therapy too late in my life: your worth is not determined by your performance and achievements. Even if you do just enough to get by in life, you still can be happy, loved, have fun etc. There are two types of super succesful people: the highly gifted or privileged ones, and the normal people that just sacrifice relationships and health to get those achievements. I am in the later one and realised after getting four degrees, work as a consultant in a big five, be a pretty good pianist... that it was an stupid amount of effort that just led to burnout, inability to maintain a romantic relationship, and some shitty health side effects caused by ignoring my body. I always thought I had a good self steem, but it is not good selfsteem if it is tied to how well you are performing! when I wasn't performing like a machine I would blame and guilt trip myself and feel like shit. Your good-enough is perfectly good, people! (still, some helpful tips I liked Elizabeth, thanks!)

I expected the same content like in every other productive video but your tips are actually GOOD and not heard before.

My division is like yours but literally backwards. I find extremely hard to concentrate during the morning, yet I can do the hardest tasks at night. I literally made all my master's work (except classes and in field experiments) during the 11pm ~ 04am hours

It is so refreshing to find a community of people who are experimenting / have experimented with this notion, that different times of day are effective in different ways. I'm currently in the middle of this experiment and have changed things up a few times to figure out what feels best. I've found that for me, it changes, and days of the week even play into it. Sometimes I feel super inspired in the morning, and other times I get really into a project post-dinner. This makes it tricky for me to plan things, but I like your deadline-without-micro-steps approach. Giving yourself the freedom to get it done but holding yourself accountable to a deadline. Self motivation is hard. All I know is watching this video and reading the comments is motivating in itself! Thanks everyone :)

Thank you for making this video! This is one of the best videos on productivity and organisation that I’ve seen! I’ll definitely be using these tips when planning for next week😊

This video is gold. I’ve been having so much anxiety around productivity but I woke up this morning to your video! What a blessing to see how you organize all your content so effectively

Hi……Not trying to find faults here. You are doing a great job. But I clicked this video because it says studying with a full time job. But where is the job part? The weekly schedule no where mentions any job or office hours. A full time employee pursuing a full time course is an entirely different game. When you leave for work at 9 in the morning and come back home at 7pm in the evening, it becomes really difficult to do course work, see lectures, and prepare for exams, etc. because you are already exhausted. You have to wake up very very early in the morning to get 3-4 hours of studying. Sometimes with huge work deadlines when you are coming back home late in the evening, this waking up early to studying becomes even more challenging.

Girl, this vid actually interests me unlike other vids that show references and tips for self care. I understood all your points perfectly and now I'm thinking of fixing my sched better. Thank you!

The PR rule it's what stuck with me the most! I've never really thought about it that way: "work expands to fill the time allocated to it", but I've tried and it's actually true

as a neurodivergent person who needs a schedule to feel secure this video is EVERYTHING!!! THANK YOU for sharing your insight!!! Will be adding these to my weekly schedule 🥰

I learned SO much from this video. I feel inspired to take on my calendar again. Thanks for posting this a year ago! 💕

The hardest thing for me personally is finishing things rather than starting them. I love starting new things and then I get bored and tired and never get back to them. I find writing the actual steps out individually to be stressful, but blocking out time and just having a spot where you can see all the things you want to do is a lot better so I don't forget what I wanted to do but I don't have to finish it all in one go, which especially for huge tasks like essay writing is mind-breaking. Allowing yourself to work on other things is so important or else you will get burnt out! Except for the superhumans that actually enjoy doing things all in one go, phew!

I had a full time job (shift work - odd hours plus constant jetlag) AND I studied uni full time. All my courses were online and tutorials and lectures would be recorded so I could watch them when I had time. Some nights I would be listening to a lecture at 3am. This hard work and commitment worked out well for me, that four years of my life was a huge sacrifice. I am now in my new profession and getting paid to do what I studied. I started studying uni to change careers at age 37. I even worked a few mornings a fortnight for free in my new chosen field to gain experience (very tired but I got through it). If I can do it, anyone can! Seriously, it takes serious dedication but you can change your life. It’s up to you and how badly you want something to change. I wanted to better myself and I’m glad I finally did, it has changed me not only in my profession, academically but as a person. I don’t take what I have now for granted. I even bought my own house by myself, something I never thought I would do. Go for it, the sky is the limit, you can only give it a try! If you don’t succeed, buy a bar of chocolate and keep trying ☺️