How do you study while working full time, and still have a life?

If someone can give me some advice/motivation on this I'd really appreciate it.

I studied and passed my CCNA while I was not working, I had so much more free time to read books and play with labs.

Now I have a full time position working with Server and XP. I'm trying to get a few MCPs before the June 2nd chance offer finishes.

Call it laziness but when I come home from long hours at work the last thing I want to do is stick my head in a fat text book.

What are some of your personal experiences with finding the balance between work, studying and keeping yourself relaxed enough not to burn out?

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Comments

LBC90805

Add into that a fulltime live in girlfriend and a purchase of a home from the early 1950s that needs fixin' up and painting. No wonder Im not CCNA yet!

skrpune

Aldur wrote: »

haha, i felt the same way. Thought my schedule was tough. Other TE members do alot more with alot less time. Time to pick up the pace

Indeed...it kinda inspired me, and I've busted out my materials for my 290 studies and have gotten through more so far today than I have in the last week!!

msethk

Like some others have posted, I study at work!

KGhaleon

What hours do you guys work? I work 8 hours a day, and I seem to have plenty of free time to study. I work from 5AM-2PM and have from 2-9PM to do stuff. <_<
Gives me 6 hours to sleep, and I can make it all up on the weekends.

darkuser

what is this life you speak of ?

vCole

KGhaleon wrote: »

What hours do you guys work? I work 8 hours a day, and I seem to have plenty of free time to study. I work from 5AM-2PM and have from 2-9PM to do stuff. <_<
Gives me 6 hours to sleep, and I can make it all up on the weekends.

That's an awesome schedule!

I work 8-4:30pm

Up at 5:30, leave the house by 6:50 to be at work for 7:55

then it's a ~45-50min drive home.

Or if I have class I wait around for a few hours and class 7-9:30pm and then a 45 minute drive home.

UnixGuy

you guys are more organized than me !!

If I get interested in a topic, I will spend days and nights mastering it, and I will pretty much ignore (and actually forget about) everything else...

the problem is when I get interested in some entertainment series like prison break or LOST, I won't leave it until I finish all seasons and read all reviews online

sometimes I get lucky and get interested in a cert, I will be studying it, dreaming about it, waking up very early to study before work, during work, after work..ignoring everything, and probably putting on weight

until I know the ins and outs and then pass. I think everybody is different, and no time management techniques never work with me, I tried before

blargoe

How do you study while working full time, and still have a life?

You don't.

jbaello

Lunch/Downtime/Nights/Weekends/Holidays

Devin McCloud

I could not imagine having a life, family and work and then studying. I am single, unemployed and spend 10-15 hours a day studying and reading. I do this 7 days a week and maybe take 2 hours a night to have friends come over for supper. If you can manage a family on top work and studying, you are a god!

rfult001

darkuser wrote: »

what is this life you speak of ?

Seriously, don't we all live in our mothers basements and do 733+ h@X0r stuff all day?

wedge1988

It's all about creating yourself a schedule, and not faultering from it! you dont have to do more than 30 minutes a day revision, i spend about 3 hours but its all good xD (they say 30 mins is the most time your brain can stay concentrated and retain information, but if that were the case we wouldnt be where we are now) - I mean, how many other professions require tireless dedication and brains like a gods to retain what we do, for the pay we get?

Turgon

Devin McCloud wrote: »

I could not imagine having a life, family and work and then studying. I am single, unemployed and spend 10-15 hours a day studying and reading. I do this 7 days a week and maybe take 2 hours a night to have friends come over for supper. If you can manage a family on top work and studying, you are a god!

hehehehe..have I just become deified?

It can all be done. It just takes a little longer that's all. Necessarily longer so you and your family stay sane

Slowhand

I've found that time-management is key. I have a lot of on my plate: a full-time job, part-time school, cert studying, a girlfriend to spend time with, some other extra-curricular reading, working out, and some sanity-time for myself to play some games or just relax. The real trick is to make the time for everything, which really involves sitting down and figuring out what I can get done each day of the week and sticking to that plan.

I study for a few hours a day, cycling through homework, certs, and "other". I spend some time with the girlfriend, I go to work, I hit the gym, and I also schedule some downtime before I go to sleep. I also make sure to give myself free-days during the week, like a Saturday where I plan on doing nothing at all and I'm free to wander and relax. So long as I stay realistic, keep my goals in mind, and give myself enough time for everything, it's all good. Knowing how to deal with the unexpected, like emergencies and unplanned work that needs to be done is also helpful, (read "remembering that it's not the end of the world if things don't go as planned").

The best advice I can give anyone trying to balance a lot of stressful things, a lot of responsibilities, or just has a lot to get done is the following.

Remember what it says on the front of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Don't Panic (In big, friendly letters).

LarryDaMan

Slowhand wrote: »

I've found that time-management is key. I have a lot of on my plate: a full-time job, part-time school, cert studying, a girlfriend to spend time with, some other extra-curricular reading, working out, and some sanity-time for myself to play some games or just relax. The real trick is to make the time for everything, which really involves sitting down and figuring out what I can get done each day of the week and sticking to that plan.

I study for a few hours a day, cycling through homework, certs, and "other". I spend some time with the girlfriend, I go to work, I hit the gym, and I also schedule some downtime before I go to sleep. I also make sure to give myself free-days during the week, like a Saturday where I plan on doing nothing at all and I'm free to wander and relax. So long as I stay realistic, keep my goals in mind, and give myself enough time for everything, it's all good. Knowing how to deal with the unexpected, like emergencies and unplanned work that needs to be done is also helpful, (read "remembering that it's not the end of the world if things don't go as planned").

The best advice I can give anyone trying to balance a lot of stressful things, a lot of responsibilities, or just has a lot to get done is the following.

Remember what it says on the front of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Don't Panic (In big, friendly letters).

Wow, it sounds like you've really got command over your life. A lot of people in this thread really have their stuff together.

I go in phases, the last two months or so I have been unmotivated. I feel like I have been stuck in the movie "Groundhog Day" as the same day repeats over and over. Other times, I feel like an unstoppable world beater.

Lately, I have been in a rut. I was thinking about trying Transcendental Meditation (TM). I have read that it can be great for relieving stress and improving focus. I think more trips to the gym would help too.

Kasor

A lot of late night study and weekend at home.

miller811

Get up early in the morning and study before work. Then you can spend all day thinking about what you studied that morning. Play CBT while you commute.

nel

Its about time management and how fast you want to get through a track basically. The way i see it, most of all i enjoy it and secondly i know its an investment in my career. No ones gona learn this stuff for you - its all on your own toes. I want to be at the top of the game in the long term and i know this is the way to do it.

captobvious

carboncopy wrote: »

I study at work

And we wonder why production is in the crapper? Nah, just foolin', do what you can when you can!

CCIEWANNABE

i study at work too. that's why i work mids, i am able to study for hours every night. thats my push to getting my ccie. i might as well be learning something!

NOCup

Most of you put me to shame. I have an awesome work schedule but I spent most of the free time at work watching TV, gaming and web surfing. My NOC has two 65" LCD TVs, a DVD player. One of the TV is being for monitoring application. I work from 8AM - 8PM for 3 days straight in a Unified Communication NOC then get 3 days off. So my shift will rotation to Saturdays and Sundays which normally only have no more than 2 hours worth of work to do. I passed my CCNA, CVOICE and CIPT. You guys really motivated me. I am going to pass rest of 3 test before June that's when my third year employee review will be.

God speed to you all who are working on your certs.

Slowhand

NOCup wrote: »

Most of you put me to shame. I have an awesome work schedule but I spent most of the free time at work watching TV, gaming and web surfing. My NOC has two 65" LCD TVs, a DVD player. One of the TV is being for monitoring application. I work from 8AM - 8PM for 3 days straight in a Unified Communication NOC then get 3 days off. So my shift will rotation to Saturdays and Sundays which normally only have no more than 2 hours worth of work to do. I passed my CCNA, CVOICE and CIPT. You guys really motivated me. I am going to pass rest of 3 test before June that's when my third year employee review will be.

God speed to you all who are working on your certs.

That's great to hear, gotta love those NOC jobs with only some monitoring and basic maintenance to do.

Best of luck to you, I hope that your cert-studies go well, and your review too.

NOCup

Slowhand wrote: »

That's great to hear, gotta love those NOC jobs with only some monitoring and basic maintenance to do.

Best of luck to you, I hope that your cert-studies go well, and your review too.

Thanks. But my NOC is busy as hell during weekdays. We work on CM4x, CUCM6x, CME, Unity, CUPC, MOC, VG224/248 analog gateways, 6608 modules, 3700/3800 series gateways, IPCCX. It is normal for us to troubleshoot none stop for 10 hours during regular weekdays. We have like 20 TAC case opeened with Cisco right now. Other than maintaining the systems, we have do all the call routing troubleshooting. We are not allowed to use DNA at all. We can only use CCM trace logs. Thank goodness for triplecombo.

Today is my last day on shift

Alif_Sadida_Ekin

I started taking the bus to work during the summer of last year when gas prices were around $4 a gallon. Ever since then I have not only been taking advantage of the savings cost but have also found that it forced me to study. Really with about 500+ songs on your ipod, you can only listen to it so many times. Since I could never get myself to study when I got home from work, I studied while on the bus so I wouldn't get bored. I earned my first three certs this way. It takes me an hour and a half to get to work and another hour and a half to get home. That's three hours a day of study time. Now I have to force myself to continue studying when i get home because i have labs that I can't do on the bus.

neathneathneath

In the Exam Cram series of books, it states:
"Be keenly aware that it does take time, involves some expense and requires real effort to get through the process"

I'm struggling with the 70-291 at present and I'm getting to work an hour early, in order to study (some reading and some selftestsoftware practice tests). Study say 3 hours on about four evenings per week, other days for other commitments etc.

Its hard but worthwhile, passed 4 mcp's in just over a year but not looking forward to the 70-291 test which is booked for the 17th Feb.