 By Graham Trickey, Editor, Prospects. New postgraduate students are just beginning a year or more of study. In many cases the intention will be to combine it with the employment necessary to support it, while also leaving time for other aspects of normal human life. As is often the case, plans may not withstand the impact of reality. But as postgraduate study is an opportunity that is too expensive to waste, some serious time management is necessary. Employers, friends, partners, relatives and social life may all get in the way of postgraduate ambitions, or vice versa. Measures are best taken before the backlog of postgraduate work gets out of control. For research degrees in particular, it is possible to keep putting off what needs to be done until all momentum is lost. The first move in the counter strategy is to analyse what is going wrong and, using the conclusions, start to plan well ahead. A ‘to do’ list can become a lengthy and intimidating document, but intimidation may be necessary. ‘Treat your study as you would a business project,’ suggests one former research student. Realism about how long pieces of work will take is one of the essentials of time management. On Friday night a weekend may seem plenty of time to accommodate all that needs to be done but Monday comes along quickly. A degree of ruthlessness will be needed to deal with conflicting demands. The options can be most difficult for the part-time student who is trying to hold down a full-time job as one erstwhile part-time postgraduate outlines: ‘If your company wants you to stay late all week and you’ve set the evenings aside for your academic work, you may just have to say no.’ Prioritising can be a way of making sense of an excessive workload. While the MA or MSc student will be trying to keep up with known pieces of coursework, research students’ projects can lead in various directions without getting anywhere. A view of where the research is going needs to be taken early on. As the scale of the postgraduate commitment become clear, a little enjoyment or an escape into binge drinking becomes appealing. But there is no time for sad attempts to return to the undergraduate lifestyle. ‘Although you shouldn’t become a monk (or nun), you will have to give up most of your spare time to study,’ says an ex-postgraduate who was prepared to make sacrifices. So what will a partner think of all this? Although relationships are not included on a ‘to do’ list, one of the purposes of time management is to make room for important commitments. Be prepared to compromise and set aside time for one another are tips from the relationship counsellor’s repertoire. All the above advice has been tested in real life, but it does not always lead to a completed Masters. The erstwhile part-time postgraduate quoted earlier recalls: ‘Time management was an issue from the word go. I spent evenings and weekends on the research but this became eroded. I think the most significant factor that militated against my completing my MPhil was that it quickly became less and less relevant to the other things I was doing.’ Related topics
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