How to Get Away with Schoolwork at Workwork

Sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in a day. Other times, the dreaded group project is getting to crunch time. Still other times, we’re just plain past the point of no return when it comes to procrastination.

As working grad students, young professionals, and busy human beings, somethings gotta give. So all ethics aside, how can we sneak some of the schoolwork into our time designated to workwork.

Try to remember these four double letters. You’ll notice I left out the ‘A’ because that’s what comes at the end of the semester (bad joke—couldn’t help myself).

Bathroom Breaks

Use them wisely. People these days bring their smartphones everywhere. So carry yours along with you on your bathroom breaks. During this time, you can check your email, read through discussion posts, keep an eye on grades, and do general schoolwork monitoring.

Clever Combinations

If you’re lucky, your schoolwork and your workwork have some similarities. Combine and re-purpose your work wherever you can. If you can choose topics for school projects that correlate with your job, do it because that’s what we call killing two birds with one stone.

Discrete Discretion

I’ll admit it. Not the most clever title. It is important to be discreet, though. This advice is not guaranteed to earn you the best grades—fair warning. Make sure any school work you do is multi-tasked with workwork. For example, listen to online lectures through you headphones in a minimized window, and learn when major meetings are so you know who’ll be wandering around your office area.

Familiar Formats

Use applications and formats you use at work. If you’re in sales, type discussion posts and drafts of papers in the body of an email, so it doesn’t look suspicious. If you run your company’s blog, type your schoolwork in a blog draft. Basically, just try to be resourceful with the tools you use at work.

In the end, the most important thing is to not compromise your workwork with the schoolwork you squeeze in. Ultimately your education is to help you get (or get better at) a job. Don’t lose site of the end goal, and don’t lose your job doing schoolwork at workwork.

How else do you manage a heavy load of schoolwork and workwork?