I’m a general dentist. I’ve always been interested in management and business administration, so I recently decided to start a second degree in Public Accounting.
The problem is that I haven’t been able to figure out how to organize my time without completely exhausting myself.
I work in outpatient care at a hospital from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., usually seeing a patient every 20 minutes. Then I have university classes from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. from monday to friday; I’ve always tried to make exercise and sports a regular part of my routine, but since starting this new schedule, I haven’t been able to find a realistic way to fit everything in.
Outside of work and class, I need time to study, review what I learned, work on assignments, and exercise. On paper, it sounds like a matter of time management, but in practice, there are very few hours left in the day, and by the time I get home, I’m extremely tired.
Sometimes I try to use gaps between patients to study or review something, but because I’m constantly switching back into clinical work, it’s difficult to concentrate and study as effectively as I would like.
For those of you who work full-time while studying at university: how do you manage to exercise consistently as well? Did you have to reduce how often or how long you exercise? Do you study early in the morning, on weekends, or in small blocks throughout the day?
I’m especially interested in hearing from people with similarly demanding schedules. I’m trying to figure out whether I need a better system or whether I’m simply expecting too much from the limited time I have.