How to study during the lockdown without family assistance?

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Are you struggling to study during the lockdown without family assistance?

I just had one of my subscribers asking me this question and hence I am dedicating this post to her.

She is a busy working mum and juggling studying for a professional qualification to become an ACCA accountant with the everyday life of a working parent. So I feel privileged to be able to assist on this as I too have been there and fully appreciate how difficult this is.

On the contrary, I did not study during a lockdown, but I did not have any family assistance, other than my husband.

Despite this question coming from a professional studier, this could be applied to a university student as well, so long they have the same struggle- being a parent and studying during the lockdown.

This is an unprecedented time we are all going thought and I appreciate is not easy.

None of us had ever expected this to happen and could never plan for what was coming our way. Many of us have been left with homeschooling their children, working from home and studying at the same time. And the social distancing rules do not allow us to get any help from family or friends so it’s even more difficult.

Don’t worry I have your back… Some of the tips might not be exactly what you like to hear, but it is going to be all about juggling act and trial and error I’m afraid.

Before we move on with this, I have already written on a topic of studying being a busy mum so head over to my previous post:

6 top tips on how to study having kids

 

Let’s go with the flow.

How to study during the lockdown without family assistance?

1. Planning

 

If you want to succeed on this journey and you have no help from others, you are going to need to plan your studies.

Having children makes planning a little harder as they might decide to go sick, or not fall asleep easy and just play up so your schedule must allow for such possibilities.

Please download my free xls. planning schedule which you can utilize.

Download study planner for free

There is detailed guidance on what to look out for etc.

Be as realistic as possible, so for example, if you think you can squeeze two hours in the morning every day, but you really cannot wake up as early, try one hour instead. Try to be as realistic as possible. This will also help you to stay motivated…(More about this below)

 

2. Consistency

You will need to be consistent if you want to ensure you manage to study around the kids. Since there is no one to help you, the only thing you can do is to study when your child/ kids are asleep. Or if you can manage to keep them entertained during the day. For example, whilst they sit down having their lunch, you could squeeze some short recap of what you have learned earlier.

This is how I used to do it and sometimes I would stay awake until 12 as I would spend time studying every single evening.

It is like developing a study habit. It does not have to be evening if you can try mornings as your brain is more able to memorise in the morning than when it is tired. I was not able to wake up early as I am not an early person, besides my baby would wake up as soon as I woke up. Hence evenings would work best for me, but I have studied every single day. Even if only for half an hour, I stuck to it. It is proven by science that studying every day is the most effective way of memorising as opposed to one big chunk of time spent but only once a week.

Also do not forget once every few days or after each major topic to recap what you have learned.

3. Commitment

To achieve any goal in life, one must stay 100% committed to it. Only then one can achieve the success…

-Author- Agnes at Mumandoit.com

This is my true belief…

-You must be committed to staying on track with your learning schedule.

-You must be committed to show up at the exams and pass them.

-You must be committed to complete all of your papers to become fully qualified.

It is not going to be easy, but it is so worth it.

Any educational journey you take in your life will grow you as a person and add to your set of skill so stick to it until the end. It is the best investment (time and money-wise) in yourself. It will pay back in many ways in years to come.

So stay committed and keep going…

 

4. Motivation

This is a subject that I could talk about for hours.

How to keep motivated after exam failure… I have covered one aspect of it in my previous post so head over to How to keep motivated after exam failure!

But I want to keep this post on a positive, as I hope you will never have to go through such a bitter experience in your study journey.

Motivation is a matter of mindset and believes. If you put your mind into it and believe you can do it, nothing can stop you.

It also differs from person to person as to what keeps you motivated.

It could be money, status, promotion, self-interest, or even a reward of some kind. Therefore, you need to establish first, WHY do you want to Study? Why is it that you are putting yourself through this difficult journey? Especially when it comes to ACCA which mostly is done alongside a full-time job and often have other commitments such as children.

It might be the career prospects as after you have qualified you would get a proportion, or even more, you will be able to get a better job.

It might be also that you will get recognition amongst your peers, and family for achieving it.

It will be the self-satisfactory that all those hours spent on studying would have finally pay off and you will be able to put the ACCA letters after your name.

All these were my personal motivational rewards.

Yours might be different, but whatever it is that keeps you motivated you should write down in big letters in the visible place so that each time you sit down to study, it provides you with the affirmation and keeps you going.

This is your goal…

So what you could write is:

I want to study because gaining the qualification will open a door to a better career prospect.

I want to study because I want my family and children to be proud of me.

I want to study because I want to become a member in a Globally recognised professional body I can then write ACCA letters after my name.

Write all of them down and each time you lose a bit of motivation, look at these and read them out loud.

You are creating your own future and all the work you put in it will be so worth it. Trust me…

If you find a little hard to self motivate to study during the lockdown, why not looking for a study buddy. And yes, I know that during (and I am sure even for a while after) the social distancing rules do not allow for meetings. So you will have to stick to the internet study buddy.

What I have found useful to get motivation were forums and groups.

I was a member of the OpenTuition forum and the Facebook group of Acowtancy. Anytime I had a question, I could just ask my fellow students on the groups. I have made few Online friends too whom with I kept in touch over the years.

As part of motivation, you will need inspiration.

This could be a colleague that is already qualified, or whoever you know that has done it.

I remember while I was on my journey, I did not know anyone around me in person that had been studying while being a parent. All ACCA qualified people I knew, have managed to qualify before having kids. I felt like I had no one that could understand me or appreciate how hard it could be to juggle the job, study, and the kids… I felt inspired by those that did qualify but felt I had such different circumstances that had made it so much harder for me.

Through writing, my blog, so many mums that are in the exact same situation I was back then, reach out to me as they feel I understand them. And this is wonderful to know that I can inspire other mums to reach for their potential.

I hope I can inspire all other mums to do whatever they want to do in their lives. I am here to cheer you on, so please reach out…

Conclusion

 

If you too are in a similar situation and are wondering how to study during the lockdown without family assistance, I hope you have found some helpful tips in the above post.

It all comes down to 4 tips:

1. Planning
2. Consistency
3. Commitment and
4. Motivation

No matter what are the obstacles and how hard it is to study

You Can Do It!

 

Just wanted to give a shout out to Priscilla for sending this question to me. Your support means a lot to me. 

Please let me know if you have any questions or issues you would like me to cover and please do not forget to subscribe to my blog if you have not already done so.

 

Thank you so much