Don’t think you have 20 hours a week to allocate to your MBA studies? Too busy to study an MBA?
4 Easy Ways To Increase Your Study Time
Most Business Schools suggest spending at least 20 hours studying, per unit, per week. You aren’t alone in thinking that number is high. You could be thinking that is nearly 3 hours a night, 7 days a week. If you are a full-time employee you are probably working 8:30 – 5:30pm, get home at 6:30, take care of the kids, cook dinner, put the kids to bed and crash into the couch. Even thinking about that makes me break out in sweat!
What if I told you that you may be able to do the above, while still fitting in time to study?
Study On Your Commute
Transform your commute into a classroom. If you are travelling on a bus, train or ferry for 45 minutes each way, you have yourself 2 micro study sessions every day. Stop reading the paper, browsing endlessly through Facebook or checking your emails (Forbes says this makes you less productive anyway).
If your commute is more of a zoo than a train carriage, consider investing in noise-cancelling headphones, or playing music through your existing headphones. I recently purchased some noise-cancelling headphones and didn’t even notice the person next to me having a phone conversion for 45 minutes.
Study Before or After Work
If you are the type of person to feel like it is often busier at home than at work, taking a detour on the way home via the library may be exactly what you need to be able to focus on your studies for an hour or two. I have worked with someone who arrives to work at 7am to study. Nobody is around, there are no distractions and he is able to continue his evening routine uninterrupted. He gets 90 minutes of study in like this, every business day.
Study During Your Lunch Break
When was the last time you actually took a one hour break at lunch? Most people spend their lunch either at their desk, or furiously shovelling their food down in a communal area before rushing back to work. Assuming your employer is aware you are studying your MBA, you could book yourself a meeting room at lunch and spend 1 hour a day studying.
Study On The Weekend
Don’t freak out, but you do have the option of studying on the weekend. You don’t have to lock yourself inside for 48 hours, but spending 2-3 hours a day isn’t that much, especially considering the amount of time you may be clocking up watching Netflix.
Quick Maths
Lets do some quick math here: (2×45 min commutes) + (1x 90 min early to work) + (1×60 min lunch break) = 4 study hours. That is 20 study hours a week, not including any additional study you should be doing on a weekend.
It seems like studying is more about reallocating your existing time, rather than finding time.