How I Study While Working Full-Time

I’m working full-time as a software engineer and studying for a bachelor’s degree in computer science at Green University of Bangladesh. A lot of people wonder how I manage to do both. I’ll explain the how in this post.

Decision

I’ve been working full-time even before I enrolled for a bachelor’s degree so I was a little skeptical whether I can manage both. But I decided to give it a try anyway and go part-time at work if I can’t manage both. I’m glad I did because I didn’t want to miss out on the experience of studying at a university.

Is it possible?

It is certainly possible just a little hard to do well at both. I chose to prioritize my work over my study. Luckily my work is related to my study so most core courses are easy for me to get good grades without needing to study. On non-core courses, I just attend classes that are enough to pass the exam.

Schedule

The schedule I follow is tight but not crazy. I attend classes during the day time and work at night. I also try to get some work or sleep done during class breaks and/or class time. 😀

08:00 AM — Wake up
08:00 AM — Get ready, breakfast, etc.
09:00 AM — Classes
12:30 PM — Lunch + Work
02:00 PM — Classes
05:00 PM — Break
06:00 PM — Work
02:00 AM — Sleep

Takeaways

Use time wisely
Make use of class breaks

The Don’ts

Don’t waste time
Don’t procrastinate
Don’t skip classes
Don’t skip work

Study

You don’t have to study every day to do well at university but make sure you are attending classes and doing assignments and projects as these can make a big difference in your grade. I usually study on weekends if I think I need to for a particular course to get a passing grade. So a few things to keep in mind:

Takeaways

Attend classes
Do assignments and projects
Study on weekends

Work

My main work schedule is from afternoon to midnight but I work throughout the day whenever I get a chance to keep ahead of my work schedule so that I can sleep early and get enough rest otherwise I’ll have to sleep during class. At work, most of my time is spent on communicating requirements, learning new technologies, coding, and screaming when I can get out of a bug 😂.

Offloading Things

I try my best to offload or remove things that don’t need to be done by me or don’t align with my goals. For example, I don’t eat food at all to save time just kidding I just don’t do things that are not a must.

You may wonder after all of this I don’t have any time left for social life. Well, I don’t have much time every day but I do have time on weekends and I try my best to communicate with classmates on social media, spend time with family and friends, and go out on weekends. So I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. And yeah it makes my weekends the busiest days of the week.

Conclusion

I just shared my experience, it doesn’t mean you have to do the same. But I must say that just go above and beyond your limit, you don’t even know what you can do. And don’t forget to have fun along the way. 😊