Make The Most Of Continuing Education While Working
Being an entrepreneur means you’ve got moxie.
It’s not easy, but you’ve taken on the challenge. You’re motivated, you’re driven, and you’re ambitious.
And chances are you value life long learning. You see the value in upleveling your skills, learning new ones, and being able to add more value to your offerings.
That’s why when you see courses or programs that are right up your alley, you’re eager to sign up, eagerly (or sometimes through gritted teeth) dropping a significant amount of cash on the course fees, knowing that they’ll pay you back ten fold in the long run.
But often, the glow of your new investment is replaced by sweaty palms and anxious thoughts.
It’s SO HARD to work full time and tackle a course, program, or degree!
Take a deep breath. There are things you can do to maintain your work schedule, complete your course, and still maintain your sanity. You CAN study while working full time!
Investing In Yourself
Investing in continuing education means you’re investing in yourself. What a wise entrepreneur you are!
Self improvement, whether for your personal development or for your business, is just as valuable as any IRA or mutual fund.
It makes you more well-rounded, more interesting, and more knowledgeable.
I’m a huge fan of continuing education and am always looking for ways to improve myself as a human and a business owner. It’s very fulfilling to learn and apply a new skill…
…especially when that outcome increases revenue or helps you reach more clients with your business!
Now, I recognize that you are constantly learning on the job. Every day you learn something new that helps you grow as a business owner. You don’t have to sign up for a class because learning comes naturally when you’re looking for the lessons while you’re at work.
But sometimes, you want to make an investment in yourself in the form of a class, a course, or a program of study.
And there are ways to manage the extra load so you’re not beating yourself up saying, “I’ve wasted all this money because I can’t get the course done!”
Tips for Effectively Juggling Work and Study
It's really exciting to invest in a program or course. It becomes a beacon of hope for a brighter – and more profitable – future.
Before you hit the “buy now” button, beware:
Courses are intentionally made to sound simple and easy to incorporate into your work/life. If the classes sounded very time intensive, who would buy them?
Humans naturally over estimate the amount of time something could take, so we talk ourselves out of taking that next step and signing up for a class. Be realistic with your time commitment - could you watch one less show on Netflix every day for 6 weeks and knock out a class?
Some people do the exact opposite and underestimate how long something will take. If this is you, pad your estimation a bit so you won’t be caught by surprise.
Once you’ve found a program you’re interested in:
Estimate how much time per week you need to spend on the course to get the most out of it. Think about time spent in classes/seminars/workshops/watching videos/reading, time spent doing any exercises or “homework.”
Take an honest look at your schedule and figure out when you will be able to do the coursework that you estimated in the previous step.
Put the coursework times on your calendar. For example, it helps to make sure that every Thursday at 5pm you sit down and watch this week’s video and do the corresponding exercises.
Stick to your schedule. End work with enough time to do your program on program days. Don’t sabotage yourself by staying at work too long when you should be watching course videos!
Reach out to others who are also taking your course. People in the same boat can become sources of inspiration and can be excellent accountability buddies.
Strategies to Make It All Work
Now that you’ve made the investment, here are some strategies you can use to get the most from your time and your program.
Realize some sacrifices are going to need to be made.
You’re adding an extra workload, so it makes sense that something will need to be sacrificed.
Try to find areas that won’t be too painful to let go of. Do you really need to see the summer blockbuster the weekend it comes out? Nah. Can that weekend away be postponed and turned into a celebration of the completion of your course? Great idea!
DON’T sacrifice things that are critical to your emotional and physical well-being. Keep family time, sleep time, and workout time in place.Keep your eye on the prize. It might smart in the moment to make sacrifices, but in the end, it will all be worth it.
Utilize your down time.
Running on the treadmill, walking the dog, and driving to work become golden opportunities to learn when you’ve got information downloaded on your phone!
Even a few minutes of downtime are valuable. You don’t always have to devote big blocks of time to learning. Learning can be just as effective a few minutes at a time when you’re waiting for an appointment, pushing your cart down the grocery store aisle, or folding the laundry.
Reach out for help.
Now is the perfect excuse to delegate! Why not free up the time it takes to clean the house or maintain the yard? Think of it as a little reward for making this investment in yourself.
Arrange a stay-cation for one. Send the rest of the family on a nice weekend getaway while you spend an uninterrupted 48 hours devoted to your studies.
Get help from a productivity and time management expert like Savvy Maven. I’m a whiz at helping clients create schedules that they can follow successfully.
Reach out anytime you’d like to talk through how you can carve out time in your schedule to take a course! Check out these blogs to help with overcoming procrastination, breaking big tasks into small steps, and how to outsource to free up time.
Making a financial and emotional investment of your time and energy into learning something new is something to be proud of! While you’re planning out how your going to juggle it all, don’t forget to plan a little celebration of accomplishment!
It doesn’t have to be big or costly. Just the promise of something that would feel good and affirming to you is all the carrot you’ll need to dangle from the stick.
Even a motivated, driven, and ambitious entrepreneur with moxie needs a little pat on the back and an “attaboy” once in a while.
Reach out for a complimentary consultation if you need a little professional management help. I’ll be cheering you on!