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How to Thrive as a Nontraditional College Student
The dictionary defines the word "Thrive" as: 1.) To prosper; be fortunate or successful,
or 2.) To grow or develop vigorously; flourish
And a synonym is to Succeed. I'm sure all the above are goals for students
in general. But for nontraditional college students they may seem to be an unattainable
goal. Let's be real... if you're a nontraditional
college student you may be so focused on just Surviving your time in college that the thought
of actually being able to Thrive is somewhat of a stretch of the imagination for you.
Well I'm here to tell you... I've been there, done that, and earned those degrees. It is
possible to thrive as a nontraditional college student when you have kids, a spouse, and
a job (or two) to worry about. Here's how to thrive as a nontraditional college
student: Plan your study time in advance
Your time must, must, must be planned in advance. I promise you, very seldom (if ever) will
time in your day just open up for you to devote to your studies.
Even less likely to happen is that you have all your responsibilities taken care of so
that you don't spend that available time folding clothes or cleaning house.
Planning adequate time to study enabled me to thrive as a nontraditional college student.
Protect that study time Time that you set aside to study is bound
to be tested by other things in your life. Because there are so many other things...
and people... vying for your attention, it would be easy to let that time you've set
aside for studying be reallocated to putting those clothes up (after all you can't concentrate
as long as you can see them). Or you may spend it with your spouse or child (after all the
guilt would interfere with you being able to concentrate).
My being able to thrive as a nontraditional college student was a direct result of me
protecting my study time. Take care of your other responsibilities
When you do this you've already taken care of feeding your family, you've spent time
with your spouse and kids, the house doesn't look like a dump, and the kids have clean
clothes. You just have to learn to take care of these
responsibilities faster than you've done in the past.
The only way I could thrive as a nontraditional college student was to know that everyone
and everything was taken care of and I could turn my mental energy towards studying.
Don't feel guilty There is nothing like guilt to ruin any and
all efforts to study. If your kids are whining, if you and your spouse are arguing over their
need for attention, if your house is dirty... well, the guilt just overflows.
You feel like a failure at home and that feeling will follow you into your role as a student.
It will affect your ability to study. You simply have to learn to do the things
you have to do faster so that you still get them done. You can then direct the saved
time to studying without feeling all the guilt. I could not have thrived as a nontraditional
college student if I'd been beat down by guilt all the time.
I had to save time on the things I had to do... the cooking, laundry, and housework...
so that I could not feel guilty AND I could reinvest that time into my family and my studying.
And you can too. If you found this video helpful then don’t
forget to “Like” it so it’ll be easier for others to find.
Also, I’d love it if you’d “Pin” me and pass me on to your friends.
And, if you have a Home Time Management topic you’d like to see covered shoot me an email
@ marysegers@marysegers.com
My goal as a Home Time Management Coach is to help you save time on the things you HAVE
to do… such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, and housework so that you can reinvest that
time into your marriage, your kids, your family and friends, and even yourself.
If you'd like to learn more about making this stage of your life as easy as possible then
grab a copy of my free 77 page eBook on Time Management and Nontraditional Students which
is available for download from my website @ http://marysegers.com/nontraditionalstudents
If you'd like to learn more about Home Time Management then join my email list @ http://marysegers.com/join
and I'll send you daily emails aimed at covering all aspects of Home Time Management including
saving time on cooking, cleaning, laundry, housework and then spending that time on your
spouse, your kids, your family and friends, and even yourself.
Remember… you only have one life. It's up to you how you live it.