So, you’re thinking of committing yourself to some sort of formal education. Alongside the plethora of other thoughts and considerations in your head (what subject, what institute, how can I afford this)- a key aspect to think about, is whether to fully dedicate all your time to this, or somehow manage doing it in your already limited free time. As someone who has only recently decided to take the plunge and study for a part-time masters alongside my full time job, I wanted to share 4 things that tipped it over the edge for me:

You Have The Time

Some of you may have heard the notion that ‘time is elastic’. But what does this actually mean, and how can we apply this elusive concept to our everyday lives? Essentially, I just understand this idea as: Time is what you make it. Just a few months ago, I was convinced I had no time whatsoever to fit a masters into my hectic 9-5 schedule. However in reality, I believe we’re not all as busy as we think we are, and that pockets of time for other pursuits can easily be carved out. I started to identify some activities that were not adding much value to my life (such as spending two hours each evening watching YouTube videos), and came to the realisation that these small chunks would be all I needed to make significant progress over time. Additionally, the necessity of having to balance your commitments and priorities definitely forces you to manage your time more effectively; dealing with busy-periods at work and upcoming assignment deadlines requires a level of organisation that you may not have been used to before.

I am not saying that this adjustment is easy and that people who may choose differently are lazy in any way. But I think if you are clear on your goals and ambitions, part-time study can be a very effective way of progressing in a shorter amount of time. It will require a few sacrifices and adjustments to how you spend your time, however you will avoid elongating the process by taking yourself out of work for a period of time, and then having to face the joys of the job market once again after completion.

Financial Stability

This was a huge factor for me. Initially, I wanted to complete my masters full-time at a London-based University (how naïve of me). Then, after excitedly regaling my mum of my plan, she asked me the most astounding question that quickly brought me back down to earth: What are you going to live on? Well, my student loan of course. The realisation then dawned on me that a government loan of just over £10k wasn’t really going to get me far in London (or most places to be honest). You can probably see the point I’m trying to make here – a huge advantage of grinding alongside your job is that you don’t need to worry as much about the financial side of things. You can maintain your current lifestyle and steady income, and perhaps utilise the student loan as a top-up if possible. Embarking on formal education is tough as it is- so why not reduce the strain by choosing to be as financially stable as you can?

Sustained Motivation

I don’t know about many of you- but I feel like during my undergrad, my motivation to work hard only really manifested itself about a month or two before exam season; bringing back memories of revising 4 months’ worth of content, in order to just recall them for a final exam. I thought about how this would transpire for a full-time masters- would I just fall back into this mindset of only learning for the sake of acing an exam? Would the arbitrary learning of principles and theories capture my imagination and keep my motivation high? I suspected not. A key advantage I saw of going part-time is the opportunity to apply my learning continuously within my role. I think it is universally recognised that learning is way more effective when you actually put what you learn into practice on a regular basis- I know when I undertook my year in industry as part of my undergraduate degree, it definitely helped me to actually understand what I had learnt from my first two years. Especially in my chosen field of Computer Science, I anticipated a lot of very complex concepts and ideas that may never make sense in my mind unless I actually had a chance to work on projects that used them practically. Additionally, you may argue that a full-time degree will contain projects that will effectively simulate real life, but for me the motivation comes from pressure to perform and excel in my role, so any opportunity to apply what I’ve learnt in the real-world is a massive advantage in my opinion.

Sense Of Achievement

So far, there have been many moments throughout this process where I have asked myself if I am actually able to do this- and why am I making things harder for myself? But then I look forward to the future: perhaps graduation day, maybe excelling in my first computer science-related project at work, and anticipating this sense of achievement at how all my hard-work paid off in the end. I believe fast-forwarding in your mind is a very powerful tool in getting you through harder times, and just reminding yourself of the end point you are striving for will keep you going. Sometimes the hardest path is the one that reaps the best rewards.