The Fight For Free Time: The Beginning of My CS Degree

Okay, wow! That’s a pretty big title. Not physically, of course, but in terms of the meaning behind it and what it implies for my future. However, that’s getting ahead of the story, let’s take it back a little.

You, Me and Degree.

Even before I wrote the first post for this blog I had an unconditional offer for a part-time distance learning degree, but I wasn’t completely sure whether or not the stars would align and I’d actually be able to take up the course. Needless to say, they did. I am now in the first week of a 6 year (potentially 5) course and am currently feeling all the awkwardness and anxiety that comes with a new experience. It’s not the fact that it’s a bunch of new people I’ve never met, I like to think I’m ok with meeting new people in person let alone from behind a monitor, it’s the uncertainty of an online degree as a platform for learning.

I’ve been to university before (unsuccessfully mind you) and understand how things work when you are physically going somewhere to learn and are surrounded by tutors and like-minded students. This being an online degree, means that I have no real separation from what could be free time and what could be study time. Sure there are guides for how much time should be spent on certain sections, deadlines for assignments and microsites for each unit/section with all the information ready to be consumed, but I have no plan of action for how to tackle all of that. Even if I did, there’s this big scary uncertainty called “life” and “prior responsibility” that is ever looming, lurking off in the shadows to snap up my time or screw with the plans I’d set up initially.

Everything I’m doing right now is brand new,  an online degree, computer science as a subject, planning my “free” time (should probably call this “time outside of work”) and pushing forward on something that can become an actual career. I am jumping in head first and for the time being it’s hard to look at the big problems (tackling a degree level CS course after being out of education for nearly a decade) when little things, like how and when to organise the small group discussion that Unit 1 mentions, are causing me confusion.

Post from Owlturd Comix

And My Axe!

So this is where the fight for my free time begins. I’m no longer just able to come home and just pick up and put down whatever I want. Sure after a long day at work, I’d love to kick my shoes off and have a nap or just throw a few hours into League of Legends, and as a father of two doing that was hard enough to start with, but now with the commitment of a part-time degree I need to start planning my time. This isn’t just so I make sure I get the most out of my course, it’s so I get the most out of my life for the next 6 years. 6 years is a hell of a long time to be splitting your efforts into work, sleep, study and everything else. As much as studying will be one of the most important aspects of my daily routine for the foreseeable future, what will get me through it all will be the little things, the moments I get to spend doing things with my family (alongside general dadding and being a husband), catching up on new episodes of my favourite shows, playing my favourite games or spending time with my friends. Without a proper schedule something somewhere is going to have to give, and with all aspects of my life leaning on one another, a single weak point could bring it all crashing down.

I’ve been through induction week and the first week of study, which I used as a little bit of time for me to get over the illness that had plagued me since before Christmas and to have a look through the university website and materials I will be using. I also took this week as a way to start weening myself off my non-optimal use of my free time (super nice way of saying that I play way too many video games or waste time just consuming media) and although I know it won’t be the easiest thing to cut down on I feel it’s better than just trying to go cold turkey.

If I’m going to do well on this course, I’m going to have to really push myself and in doing so I’m going to need some time, every so often, to de-stress and decompress.  I’m going to need to make sure I use the time I have for studying to it’s fullest because if I don’t I either end up failing or eating into time I should be spending relaxing or enjoying my life.

The gist of all this is that the real fight ahead of me is a fight with myself, my awful habits and selfishness, my desire to have what I want right now with the minimal effort required to get it. I need to change a lot of behaviours in order to pass this course, get a job with a decent career path and become someone my family can be proud of.

Hey, Shut Up Already!

I was actually going to make this blog post a little longer but with how much time it tends to take me to write these I thought I should cut down the length a little. That and the fact that I have yet again taken almost a week to write this post so forgot a lot of what I wanted to write about. If I’m to keep up with this blog, which is definitely something I am going to strive to do, I will have to change my approach to planning and writing. Instead of just writing from off the top of my head, I need to start making plans in the run-up to a post, be that just planning what to write about or taking notes from classes or other sources of learning so I can easily put them together.

Alright, so let’s try and end this. One quick note I need to add before I go, as an amendment to my last post, I will clearly be spending the majority of my time focusing on my degree course rather than the Unity C# course and the algebra course on edx.org. This isn’t to say that I won’t try and complete them but they really have to take a backseat, especially whilst I adjust to my new time constraints.

So now this is the actual end of the post. Really. Thank you for reading. Go do something more productive.