Whether you are a current Academy of Wedding and Event Planning student, recently enrolled or considering signing up whilst our End of Year Sales are on, we thought that it might be timely to share some tips for juggling study during the busy holiday period; because even the most organised amongst us can find it hard to stay on track at this time of year.
Whilst some of us have more time to study or do other work, on the holidays (if you are lucky enough to have some time away from work and other commitments), many of us have less time. But it is not only lack of time that can see you get off track with your studies. Just the simple disruption to your schedule can throw your whole routine with study off and mean that even when the holidays are over, you struggle to get back to the good habits you had in place before you took a break. My suggestion is to not abandon study over the holidays, unless this is your annual vacation time (which may be the case especially for our Australian and New Zealand students. If that is the case, or if you really do prefer to take some time off over the holidays, that is ok, but have a plan in place for when you start again, before you take that time off. Make a date with yourself for that first study session back from holidays and stick to it no matter what. This will minimise the risk of letting the short break, overflow into the next few weeks.
If you have decided to keep up with your study over the holidays but need some strategies for managing your time off, with your desire to keep working on your course, here are some more tips.
Rearrange Your Schedule
I recommend planning your weeks out regardless of what time of year it is, but especially during the holidays, when your routine changes. It is important to take a look at the days ahead and what your commitments are and make room for study. Perhaps you study in your lunch breaks when working. Over the holidays this might need to change to being a weekend morning. If you normally do a long 3 hour session one night a week, you may prefer to change this to 2 or 3 shorter sessions in the afternoons. The key is to make a plan that takes your new ‘short-term’ routine into account.
Clear Your Head
Things can get crazy over the holidays, especially if they include doing different and fun things and catching up with family and friends. If you are going to slot study into this mix, allow some extra time in your study schedule for clearing your head before you sit down to work. Taking a walk or going somewhere else to study (if you have guests staying) are both things that you can do to clear your head and get focused for your study session. My personal strategy is to do the ‘work’ before lunch and leave play for the afternoon and evenings.
Form a Study Group
Our private Facebook Group for students, Academy Live, is perfect for this. The idea here is to find some other people who are also going to be studying over the holidays. Form an online support group so you can stay accountable to your goals and have the support of others who are also juggling the holidays with study.
Do you have some holiday study tips of your own to share. Please add them to the comments and enjoy your studies over the holidays!
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