About to start a full-time MA, and had a meltdown last night - advice in handling time and technology - anything really!

[Boysboys1]

Hello,

So pleased I found this board! I was due to start a part-time MA this month and due to some admin issues, I found out a couple of weeks ago that I can only do full-time, and there will be no option of deferring or pausing on study as the course won't exist next year!

After an encouraging chat with the head of department, I've decided to just go for it. I have two children - one at school and one at nursery - and I work 2 days a week and have my youngest on the third day.

My youngest still breastfeeds and is currently having night dreams so is waking a lot to feed and my DH works full time, so last night, I just broke down at 1am and convinced myself I would email the tutor and quit this morning.

BUT I HAVEN'T...

It feels like the first thing I've truly done for just myself in a long time, and I would love some advice on how to cope. I'm pre-reading ahead of my start date, formulating some rough essay ideas and reading through some academic articles online. I'll have one full day, one morning, and a weekend morning each week to work on it (eek!?) I think what has mostly changed since my first degree ten years ago is all the online stuff - especially libraries. For humanities subjects, do you mostly reserve and pick up books from the library to reference still? Or is there a whole new set of rules?? Is there anything else I need to get my head around sharpish? Any great resources on how to plan an MA level essay? Can you use 'I' now? For my undergraduate degree you could never say 'I'.

Thanks for any words of wisdom in advance <3

Hello! Until very recently I ran a full time very full on vocational MA. A tough course. Without question the most organised and among the more successful students have been "mature" students with children. They had to be organised and occasionally needed a bit of flexibility around sick children and so on, but they always overcame their logistical problems. I think it's because you don't take on an MA under those circumstances lightly.
Good luck with it!

@Double0FeckingBollocks I love your profile name. Sort of reflects my feelings last night! :) Thank you. Yes, certainly not lightly and I'm determined to be as productive as I can be as I don't want to miss my children's' lives for a year, but am very passionate about this course and love the feeling of my brain kicking back in a certain gear. Who needs sleep??

I cried the night before I started an MSc course because I couldn't figure out my timetable online. I think the panic and fear convinces you that you can't do it. You can do this and ace it, very best of luck with it

I'm about to start the foundation year of my degree and I sat and cried yesterday. I really don't know how I'm going to do it!! My timetable says I have full lectures on one day and I can't find a childminder who works late enough to accommodate the hours!! 😭 I just hope it somehow resolves itself because I've been planning this for a long time and like you said, it's the first thing I've done for myself in 10 years!! I hope it plans out for you too. X

I've just mentioned this on another thread, but make use of your phone. Most reading you'll be doing will be journal papers so if you do this on your phone, you can do searching, scanning and reading in the snippets of time that become available, this means that the time you've set aside for working can be used most productively. Set up good habits and 'rules' from the start around protecting your studying time at home.

Honestly though, loving the subject is a great motivator, good luck!

Most journals are accessed online now. Very few academics I know ever set foot in a library!

You'll be fine. Just be ruthless about protecting the time you have allocated. Don't let life spill int that but equally don't let the course take over your whole life

I love my Evernote - every book I have read for my course is indexed there with brief notes, and you can tag entries so I can search by keywords. Different subject areas have their own notebook so I can also scroll through to spot things quickly.

I also use it to start entries for things I need to look into and tag these 'things to do' so I can look for that tag when I need inspiration for what to do next. Eg, I read a researcher's name that I hadn't come across before so I started her a page. When I next spotted her name in an index of a different book it reminded me to go to my Evernote and fill in the biography entry with notes on her work.

@Fearless9286 Thank you! A friend said similar about the anticipation. She said when you're in the flow you're sort of already in it!
@Buddrinker84 I'm so sorry to hear about the childcare. Could any modules be caught up with online while you find one? Local nursery one day a week? I know a lot of children who do a mixture depending on your child's age. Or if they are school age, I had one evening with my eldest and I reached out to a school mum who amazingly said he could have tea there. Very best with your course - you can do it :)
@bumpytrumpy Thank you - I have heard this. I booked for a library induction and was mildly horrified it was on Teams! I see there are so many subscription sites. Is it worth signing to any? I've been looking through one called academia.edu with lots of interesting articles but this used to be some form of forgery when I did my undergrad!
@growinggreyer Thank you, will check that out. Feels like a whole new world. I feel like a octogenarian on TikTok :/

I think the library induction will help you. For example at Sheffield you log into one portal and that gives you access to everything.

My biggest tip - which I've said on another thread 😀 - is get a referencing software and learn how to use it. I use zotero but there are others. It'll save so much time when doing assignments.

Also if you have an iPad or tablet get Evernote/good notes/notability and use that for note taking. The index and search and ability to make notes on pdf is invaluable and you don't need to cart huge folders around (I am disabled and this is an issue for me)