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Challenges and Strategies for Successful Graduate Study Bianca Robinson ASS/501 February 10, 2014 Instructor: Cord Anderson Whether in high school, studying for your undergraduate degree or start your journey as a graduate student, challenges will always face you as you study to complete each course. Throughout my years of school I have realized that with each level of education there comes a different level of challenges to go along with It.
A lot of people may think of a challenge as a bad thing, though, once you determine strategies that will help you overcome those challenges you can think of It as a earning area Instead of a problem area. Time management, staying focused on one job until It Is full and being able to balance my everyday life with my school life would be my challenges of my graduate school study. Time Management Time management Is defined as “priority-based structuring of time allocation and distribution among competing demands (“Business Dictionary: Definition,” 2014). As I started my Journey on to completing my master’s degree In criminal Justice about three weeks ago, I’ve realized that time management has been my biggest challenge hen trying to complete my assignments. In my mind I’ve always told myself that I will have enough time to complete everything therefore, I’ll keep putting It off until the last minute. But, In the end I was only stressing myself out trying to make sure I finished my Job on time. One strategy that I have started using and I think It works very well Is sitting down and writing down everything that I need to do that week.
Once I have done that I decide what time of the day I will set aside each to make sure I get those particular things accomplished. In “Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing,” Linda Kramer states that making a list of things that you have to do and crossing each task off as you complete It Is a great strategy to help with time management actually sticking to doing those certain things at that particular time that you have set aside every day, but with determination to improve in this area of weakness you will be able to overcome it.
Staying Focused Another big challenge that I faced when I first started my graduate was trying to stay focused on one Job. I have always been a person that once I finally started to get y assignments done I could not stay focused on what I was doing. A lot of people say that are this way because of being diagnosed with ADD. However, for myself I just try to do too many things at once. For example, when I get on the internet I will usually do work for about 10-15 minutes and then all of a sudden I find something else to look up on the internet that has nothing to do with my assignment.
This challenge goes back to me thinking I have more than enough time to complete an assignment so I continue to push it off and get distracted by other things. Noticing hat this was a challenge for me when I was trying to get my work done I knew there was something I had to do to overcome it. The strategy that I use to stay focused on my assignments is turn the television off in my house and sit at the dining room table to do my work. I know you are probably thinking, “What does sitting at the table have to do with improving this challenge? Well, I have found that sitting at my table versus sitting on my bed reduces my distractions and helps me to stay focused on the Job at hand. This is because I am less likely to fall asleep and less likely to have the desire o turn my television on. Balancing Personal Life with School Life Lastly, I would say my final challenge when it comes to my graduate school studies would have to be trying to find the balance between my personal life and my graduate school life.
When I was studying for my undergraduate degree I was only working 20 hours a week at the daycare right on my campus and then most of my other time went to doing my homework. I really did not need to find the balance between my personal life and schoolwork because I spent most of my time doing schoolwork. But, now that I have completed my undergraduate career I work full-time, very active in my church and expecting a baby. In my mind I figured it may be a little difficult for me to balance all of that while completing my master’s degree but I knew that I would be able to do.
I have not yet completely been able to find that perfect balance between my personal life and my school life but I am making steps towards it. In an article I read entitled “Working full-time and studying full-time: Is it possible? ” one very interesting approach that the author listed to gain balance of our personal life and school life is to talk to someone that was once in my shoes and see how they were able to balance everything ad still get through it (“Working full- time and,” 2014).
Since I read that I have started to talk with a coworker who will be graduating from University of Phoenix this Friday and she gives me tips on how to balance everything. Conclusion Beginning my graduate study has probably been one of the best decisions that I’ve made in a very long time. Before I started on this Journey I knew there would be challenges and maybe some bumps in the road that I would have to overcome but tit the right mind set and strategies to improve I could make it.
Time management, staying focused and balancing my personal life with school life are definitely my biggest challenges, yet I know I am taking the right steps forward to improve them. Kramer, L. W. (2007). Dimensions of critical care nursing. 26(4), 158-159. Working full- time and studying full-time: is it possible?. (2014). Retrieved from http://www. Idealist. Org/info/Graduation/Resources/Preparing/Workout’s Business dictionary: Definition of time management. (2014). Retrieved from http:// www. Objectifications. Com/