An MBA degree can be a gamechanger for many looking to advance their careers in the business world, but it doesn’t come without challenges. The advanced business degree pushes students to learn a variety of new skills, all while managing their professional and personal lives.
The key to balancing these three aspects is effective time management.
Understanding time management
Having strong time management skills means that you’re able to prioritize your tasks and are efficient in completing them in the time available to you. When you’re enrolled in an MBA program, you must be able to prioritize and complete tasks from multiple aspects of your life, both personal and professional.
Below are five time management strategies that can help you stay on track when you’re enrolled in an MBA program, and how you can improve them over time.
Create and stick to a schedule
The first key to effective MBA time management is creating a schedule that works for you and the way you learn and work. Depending on the program, you may have to balance MBA coursework with your job.
At Daniels, we offer MBA programs to meet any schedule, whether students are looking to take courses online or in person, full time or part time.
Graduate students that have strong time management skills can create a schedule that balances the various factors of their lives and can duplicate that week after week. You’ll need to find time to do homework and study outside of the classroom, while not neglecting your job or personal responsibilities.
There are a variety of tools to help organize your calendar, whether you use Gmail or Outlook, in your academic and professional life. You may opt for online scheduling tools like Doodle and Calendly that keep you organized and on top of approaching meetings, while also blocking off time when you’re busy.
In the Professional MBA program at Daniels, students are often balancing a full-time job with evening classes. As such, many MBA programs rely heavily on group projects to reduce the individual burden on students. In these situations, it’s important to set individual responsibilities for group members that match their skills and availability outside of the classroom.
While group projects can make scheduling more challenging, they do help share work in a collaborative environment.
Know your deadlines
MBA programs, much like in the business world, are driven by deadlines. Whether it’s homework, projects or exams, it’s crucial for MBA students to know and be able to meet the deadlines set forth for them. As you build out your schedule, it’s important to note the upcoming deadlines and give yourself ample time to meet them.
Also, MBA program leaders and professors can be flexible. So, if you don’t think you’ll be able to meet an upcoming deadline for a good reason, let them know! You may be given an extension to complete the work.
Organize your priorities
Balancing home, work and school priorities isn’t a simple task, but that doesn’t mean it should be ignored. Adding an MBA program to an already full plate may mean that something will drop off, and that’s OK. The key for MBA students is identifying which areas of their life aren’t receiving proper attention and making changes to address them.
If you have an exam coming up, maybe your personal life will have to take a back seat for a week. The key to time management is realizing that your priorities will change based on a variety of factors. So, update those priorities based on what needs the most attention in your life at any given moment.
Understand your limitations
Roberta Nicknish
People that enroll in MBA programs often share the quality of motivation, meaning they are willing to take on new challenges to grow. The flip side of that is that strongly motivated people sometimes push themselves too far.
Roberta Nicknish, director of Graduate Student Services, said the first two quarters of a program are often the most intense in terms of work and time commitment. So, she recommends students not do too much additional work outside of class.
“With five-week classes and the various challenges, the pace of the Denver MBA is intense for students getting back into school after being in the workforce,” she said. “For the most part, students adjust to the cadence and time expectations after the first couple of quarters.”
Adding an MBA program to your schedule may be a great idea until academic, personal or professional challenges arise. It’s important to realize when you’ve been pushed too far and to say no to anything additional.
If an MBA program becomes too cumbersome to continue at the current pace, it’s important to use time management and know when it’s time to take a step back. If you’re overwhelmed, you can talk to your student advisor about reducing your class schedule or taking a quarter off. This may help you continue your MBA journey at your pace, in a way that’s healthy for you.
Managing time while doing MBA is a difficult task and if you won’t manage your time accordingly you will not only left behind in the study but in other fields as well.(Health, social life etc.) So we need to manage the time always. Great tips you have shared.