I feel that my greatest challenge will be managing my time effectively, specifically, when I'm working on assessments and consuming the additional materials that complement each of the modules.

I want to put my best effort into every task and I don't want to be giving myself constraints because of poor time management. The biggest thing that could derail my study routine is looking after my kids if they get sick, and that can sometimes lead to an entire week of not getting anything done. I fear that falling behind will lead to stress.

I'm excited to be studying again, and I want to absorb everything, not skim through it just to catch up.

Since starting the course, I've discovered that I need to have a stronger organisation structure. I'm only doing two subjects, but I can see that I need to find an effective solution to store my notes, worksheets, reading materials, videos and any useful references that I find.

If everything I collect is fragmented across multiple apps, tools or documents, I'm going to have a lot of 'mental clutter', which leads to stress. I don't want to have a difficult time managing everything.

As a dad of two kids, life gets busy. My wife works full-time, while I look after all the home duties. There are the daily errands like preschool pick up and drop offs and there are the more time-intensive activities that require a lot of mental attention too, like helping my son with his reading or researching primary schools and social commitments like birthday parties and sport.

All of these things take priority, so ensuring that I am engaged with their development as much as my own is going to be a challenge to overcome.

• Capitalise on the 3 days each week that I can dedicate to my studies with minimal interruption and explore ways to increase my productivity during these periods.
• Block out Monday and Tuesday between 9am and 3pm exclusively for study. This currently includes attending classes.
• On Wednesday, dedicate a minimum of 2 hours to getting ahead on assessment tasks. This might include drafting copy for a presentation, sketching ideas, or simply reviewing a rubric against my work.
• Additionally, allocate an hour on Sunday evening once the kids go down, just to plan for the week ahead. What’s coming up, what assessments do I need to focus on and write a short checklist to keep me focussed.

• Use Apple Notes as my central study organisation system because it integrates seamlessly with my Macbook and iPhone.
• After classes, just take an extra 15 minutes to ensure my notes are complete. Keep a simple checklist of tasks that need to be completed before the following week (to save me trying to dig through email, Teams and MyLearn)
• As part of my Sunday evening routine, scan my notes from the week, and check that everything is consolidated, in the right location, and most importantly, has enough context. This will help if I need to refer back to a note in the future.

My focus in this area is to ensure that my study life and personal life can co-exist, and that there isn’t any tension between the two.

• Take time to share my study experiences with my family. On Wednesday evenings, talk to my wife about what I’ve been up to - what class was like, what assessments I’m working on. Let her know how I’m feeling about everything.
• When it makes sense, get the kids involved! For example, my kids absolutely love to draw and we’ve had a great time drawing together while I worked on my first assessment for Graphic Communication. I could teach them drawing techniques, we would scan, print and colour our drawings together.
• Conversely, set clear boundaries when necessary. As an example, 5pm-7pm is time solely dedicated to the kids.
• Use family time to reduce stress around study. This could simply mean going to a park, running around and not thinking about study. Have some fun and then resume my study tasks with a clear head.