How to Make Studying After Work Easier (So You Can Reclaim Your Weekends)
One of the most common problems I hear from students is the difficulty of studying after work.
You’re tired, you’ve had a long day, you just want to chill out and wind down – not a single part of your goddamn soul wants to study.
But you know you have to.
In this episode I’m gonna share with you a big perspective shift that will make studying after work a lot more doable. And then I’ll share some practical tips to help you actually make it happen.
This post originated as a podcast episode which you can listen to below or watch on YouTube. Or, if you’re more of a learn-by-reading student, carry on for the blog version based on the podcast script.
Ways to listen:
Listen in the player above
Click to listen on Apple Podcasts.
Click to listen on Spotify.
You’re not alone in kinda hating studying after work
I get it and I’ve been there. When I did my degree it was alongside working full time and I remember the struggle. I felt so jealous that my friends could watch an entire series of a show after work, or go out, or stay in…whatever, because their time was theirs. It felt deeply unfair that I had to go upstairs and study in the evenings while my partner got to stay downstairs and chill. And I would sometimes get home from work and sit in the car on my driveway hoping for some kind of miracle – a magic elf to appear who could do my studying for me, or maybe just a bolt of lightning to put me out of my misery.
Sooooo, we know that studying after work is tricky, but how on earth do we make it easier?
You’ve gotta commit, baby!
OK, so you obviously really want what’s at the end of this qualification. You’ve committed to your course because you want the career change or progression that comes with finishing it.
So it’s fair to say you’re pretty committed to your education, right?
But are you committed to your studying? Are you as committed to the actual act of studying? Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after long-ass year.
Cos it’s going to take 100s if not 1000s of study sessions to achieve your qualification. And the time for those study sessions has to come from somewhere.
Now, I know you know this. I’m not trying to be condescending and imply that you haven’t realised you actually need to study.
But there’s a difference between actively having to decide every single day whether you’re going to study and when, and fighting yourself over the decision….OR just accepting the commitment and making peace with it.
This was the shift for me. Making myself study became a lot easier when I just accepted it as part of my life. Just like I had to go to work Monday to Friday from 9–5, I had to pay my rent on the 1st of the month and I had to fill my car up with petrol before it ran out (I still struggle with this one) – I also had to study about 15 hours a week.
The days and times of my study sessions could change and some weeks I could do less if I did more on others – but I still had to do it. Because I’d committed not only to pursuing a qualification, I’d also committed to the sacrifice.
Making peace with this was pretty bloody liberating. Before, I’d waste my energy and willpower every day stressing about whether I should study or could get away with not, and thinking about when to study around everything else I had to do or wanted to do. After, I’d accepted that studying was going to happen most days and I knew at what points in my day I would study – which freed my brain from all that fighting.
And I believe this could be the solution for you too if trying to study after work is feeling really hard and causing you a lot of stress and guilt.
OK, so I’ve got some prompts for you to answer and I’ll share some tips to not only make it easier to study after work, to also make you more productive so you get more done.
What will studying after work GIFT you?
You may be thinking, “huh?” But hear me out. Studying after work does take away free time in your evenings – time for rest or hobbies or socialising.
But what does it give you? What are the benefits of studying after work?
If I study two or three evenings after work, I’ll only have to study on one weekend day rather than two, or half a day at the weekend rather than a whole one
If I study a few evenings after work, it’ll make me enjoy my study-free evenings more, guilt-free!
If I study during the week after work, it’ll be easier to study at the weekends because I’ll be in the habit and more consistent
If I study during the week after work, I’ll feel less stressed during the week and it’ll put less pressure on my weekend studying, as I know I’ll have already ticked off some of my tasks.
Can you see that while, yes studying in the evening after work is a sacrifice, it’s also kinda not? Like it’s actually worthwhile for your motivation, mindset, progress and how much you enjoy your non-study time too.
OK, so you’ve made peace with the fact you have to study after work and you’re on board with the benefits.
When are you going to make it happen?
Maybe you quite like being flexible with your studying so you’d rather play it by ear instead of deciding exactly when you’re going to study.
But it’s helpful to know what windows of time make sense based on your schedule:
Which evenings aren’t gonna work for studying because of other plans?
Which evenings make sense as your go-to evenings?
What time slot makes sense? Based on when you get home from work, when dinner is, if you have kids and need to do bedtime and/or other commitments
There’s something powerful about actually stating these windows, not just leaving them vague like, “Ah yeah I’ll try and study after dinner for a bit some evenings”
Instead, setting a clear intention such as, “My go-to study evenings are Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, either as soon as I get home from work before dinner, about 17:30–18:30, and/or after dinner between 19:30–21:00.”
How are you going to make it happen?
So you’ve identified your go-to windows of studying, now it’s time to manage the transition around them.
Because it’s all well and good saying you’re going to study as soon as you get home from work, but without a clear plan you’ll have got caught up in housework or you’ll sit down for 5 minutes and suddenly an hour’s gone by and it’s time to make dinner and all you’ve done is faff about on your phone.
So, for each of your study windows (e.g. after work and before dinner, or after dinner and before bed), I want you to think about how that transition from not studying to studying is going to happen. How can you make it easier?
For instance:
WINDOW: studying straight after work and before dinner
TRANSITION: come in, shoes off, bag down. Put some music on on your phone and go and get changed into comfier clothes. Grab a Diet Coke from the fridge and a snack and head to your desk. Open your laptop, put headphones on, set a timer for 45 minutes, put phone on shelf out of reach – and get studying.
EXTRAS: you may realise you can improve this transition before as well. By making sure your desk is clear after every study session ready for the next one. By noting down your next study task at the end of the previous one, so you don’t waste half your study time deciding what to do. Maybe even setting out your comfy clothes on your bed before going to work, ready for when you come home.
We can’t just throw an intention out into the universe that we’ll try to study a few days each week. Our actions need to align with this intention.
Hopefully this episode has helped you realise that you need to:
– Make plans and take action to actually make it happen
– Accept that studying is a sacrifice and make peace with it
– Realise that “sacrificing” some of your evenings to study has other gifts
– Work out when in your schedule, realistically, you can carve out time for studying
