Today I am sharing how to survive grad school while having a life. I recently went back to University to get a Masters Degree. I had been working as an RN in Maternity/Obstetrics for a while and I knew that working shiftwork for a long time was not for me. The best part of working in Maternity was the teaching. I found a passion for teaching and I decided I wanted to teach nursing, as I really enjoyed taking students under my wing on the unit. I applied to the University of Victoria, where I did my undergraduate degree, to the Nurse Educator Masters program.

The timing of this adventure couldn’t have been any better. I got accepted The September of 2019, 7 months after the pandemic started. This gave me something to do since the whole world was on lockdown anyways.

I worked almost full time in Maternity and did full time graduate studies. Yes, I was crazy but it was absolutely worth it. It was encouraged by the school to only be completing my studies and not be working but that was not doable.

These are things I did to survive grad school, maybe they can help you too!

Buy a planner.

Yes you will need a way to organize your life. This can be on your phone, computer, paper based, whatever you need to organize yourself. I chose to use a planner and I am obsessed with Fringe products so I used a Fringe paper based planner. I also got some amazing thin pens and midliners to further organize by color. School was a few colors and work was one color. Family events and self-care activities were another color. Assignment due dates were red of course! Key to survival is to plan surviving grad school. This is a link to the style of planner I used (no I do not receive commission for sharing this). I liked to map out both my months and weeks. I also kept track of general life.

Do not procrastinate with your assignments

When I did my nursing degree I would write an assignment the night before it was do. This was not realistic for me in this program. I needed to be ON TOP of my assignments. I aimed to have my assignments completed at least a week before they were due. This left me a week to edit. This leads me into my next point…

EDIT EDIT EDIT

Writing the assignments aren’t the hard part. Editing is the time consuming part during grad school. This is where you refine your language, check formatting, double and triple check that you have hit all the guidelines. I used Grammarly to edit occasionally. Give yourself enough time to edit your work.

ASK QUESTIONS

Ask the professors your questions! Use them as a resource! Obviously they won’t give you the answers and that is not what you should be seeking out if you’re in grad school. But… they do want to support you and help you. In my program, the professors wanted to hear my own thoughts and learning and gave me a safe space where I could explore my creative side. Clarify your assignment guidelines or expectations when you need to. Don’t struggle through unknowing for fear of looking stupid.

Be Compassionate

I felt like a fish out of water in my grad program. I did not have teaching experience in a formal setting like most of my peers or know the lingo that some of my peers used. Something I needed to stop was comparing my learning journey to that of others. I had to be self-compassionate an this was key to making it through grad school. Remember that you learn and create your own learning journey at your own pace. There is no right or wrong way. I also found myself comparing my grades to others. This was crappy as some other people were not working and completing studies and had way more time than I did to fully engage in the learning. This was not my experience and I only had so much of myself to give. I had to set realistic expectations of myself.

Self-Care

I cannot talk about grad school without talking about self-care. Grad school can eat up all your time. I really had to focus on setting aside time (scheduled in my planner) for my self-care activities. Because of the pandemic, for me this was mostly massages, meditations, walks, exercise, activities with my husband.

Find a good peer group

This applies to two different contexts, personal and within your program. I was lucky to live with my best friend during the pandemic (yes I refer to my husband here) and he would cook and clean because I had zero time. That being said, lean on your people when you need to and learn to delegate tasks. I found an awesome peer group within my program that supported one another and peer reviewed when needed. It was nice to also ask questions and clarify assignment guidelines.

Save Money

I was fortunate in that I had saved money for grad school ahead of time and as I went. My husband and I had just bought a house in July of 2019, two months before my program started. It would have been more of a load off if I could have afforded to work a smaller amount during school.

Thanks for reading!