When you are asking yourself what does PhD stand for, know that the answer is, a doctorate of philosophy. This doctorate or advanced degree can pertain to any field and industry and is the gold standard for the highest level of education possible.
With the advanced degree, comes the advanced salary. As a parent, it’s never going to be a bad idea to pursue a Ph.D. It’s always going to be worth it, whether you are a stay-at-home parent, unemployed, or currently in the workforce, you can do it.
Getting there is the battle though. How can you manage it all and keep your tiny humans on their own paths toward success? Learn more about how to do this right here.
Become the Delegation Wizard
You already delegate and don’t have a problem doing that if you are a parent. When you are getting your PhD, become the delegation wizard. Begin delegating more and more frequently, and even add to your army of people you can delegate to.
Discuss the changes in life with your children and spouse ahead of time, and let them know you will need their support. When you say that, let them know what that means. Let them know that this means they will need to take on very specific chores, and have more responsibilities around the home. You can do this in a way that makes it doable for everybody.
You can also delegate to your current support system outside of the home. Get into the habit of asking other people such as friends and family, neighbors, and friends, for help. They want you to ask, and will be there if they can. Offer them something in return for their time to thank them for agreeing to be delegated to with this newfound life.
Become Vigilant With the Schedule
It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that a more flexible schedule will mean that you can put things off, or do multiple things at once. You can’t do that anymore. The PhD lifestyle is one that is going to be very demanding. Make your homework time your homework time, their homework time their homework time, and your free time your actual free time.
Your brain needs the breaks and you won’t get everything done, or as awesomely as you can, if you don’t become steadfast with your scheduling. You do need to become a multi-tasking genius, but you also want to get into the habit of taking care of one task at a time.
Practice Saying No
When you are in grad school, you want to be a part of everything, while still being everything to everybody. You can’t possibly say yes to everything. You are already accustomed to saying no to your children. You can do that in the real world as well.
Say no to commitments that don’t fit on the schedule you have now become vigilant over. Say no to social requests that may not jive well with your work, school, and life balance. Say no when it is the right thing to do, but you don’t want to say no when you should be saying yes either.
Learn How to Say Yes
When you are in a PhD program, there are a lot of things you need to prepare for. This is a big stepping stone to a new career, and likely the rest of your life. From here you will start to work, and then retire, and enjoy what you have built. Between now and then, you want to come more from a place of yes.
You need to say no more to things that are interfering with your success. At the same time, you want to say yes more to things that will contribute to that future life and future dream. This could mean volunteer work, internships, board appointments or committees that you can work with in order to build up that CV. You want to focus on things that will supplement the resume before you get back into the job market. Come from a place of yes when it comes to planning your future.
Take Care of You
If you have decided to pursue a PhD, then you already know how important it is to take care of you. During this process, another important element will be to take care of you. Self-care is so important here. When you are not saying no, saying yes, delegating, or working on your work/home/school/life balance, take care of you.
Self-care is health care, and it is most critical for people that have fully stacked lives. If you don’t find ways to take care of yourself through all of this, you are going to find yourself stressed out and burned out when you don’t have to be. Take care of yourself so that you can take care of them, and know this time will only last for a season.
As you’re applying, check out this step-by-step guide on writing beautiful personal statements for college and putting together an awesome college application:
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