Along with making adjustments for your new priorities, enrolling in a degree program will necessarily mean some fairly broad changes to your daily/weekly schedule. Some of your current commitments are immutable; others will give you some flexibility. Since these tend to be primarily time spent with your family and friends, it’s probably a good idea to get their help in setting up your new schedule – you’re certainly going to need their co-operation later.
The most effective and efficient approach is to do a little bit each day, rather than allowing it to accumulate until the weekend. Something invariably comes up, then what happens to your careful planning? Besides, weekends are supposed to be “your” time to use however you choose – for rest, relaxation, and recreation, not slaving over textbooks and tethered to them and your computer all day. I know you think now that you’re different, that you’ll be able to pull this off, but I’ve seen that quickly degenerate into full-blown resentment and unnecessarily blaming coursework for nothing but misery and torture; that generally won’t last more than one term, then you’ll drop out of college.
What I would recommend is starting with three or four hours a day, and leaving one day during the week and one day over the weekend ‘open’ for family and friends, but be flexible. Similarly, you need to spread your time evenly across the weekly schedule for exercise, chores, and ‘alone’ time. You can find forms online for printing out a weekly schedule, or pick up printed appointment books and desk calendars in a variety of formats. [I prefer the desktop year-at-a-glance type.]
What I have found most useful is to read through the entire syllabus or study guide first thing to get an overview of what to expect so I can adapt my schedule to it as necessary. With the competency-based model at WGU I don’t have classes or cohorts, so when and how I go about preparing for the proctored exams and performance tasks is entirely up to me. That’s the ultimate “flexibility” and “convenience”! But it does require an uncommon amount of self-discipline and self-motivation.
Fortunately, a lot of the lower division work, the traditional freshman and sophomore years, is simply an extension of courses you had in high school, so these may go significantly faster and smoother than the upper division courses that are completely new territory for you. Better still, the study guides are almost always designed around a weekly schedule, which helps enormously to keep you on track and keep you moving toward your goal without it becoming oppressive.
