In 2025, I am balancing my college courses without sacrificing too much of what I’m trying to build. I’m working toward my bachelor’s and then moving on to a master’s in creative writing. I’m also tempted to keep going for a PhD, but we’ll cross that bridge later.
To give a bit of a back story, I am involved in a large number of projects. This includes maintaining blogs, building YouTube channels, working for clients as a freelance writer, and working on publishing my next several books.
As you can see, my time is at a premium.
So, how is adding a college course going to affect balancing my day?
Combining Writing Time and College
When I took the Reedsy masterclass for How to Write a Novel, I combined the time with writing Shadows of Atlantic City. Essentially, I would implement what I was learning while writing my next book. In this case, it didn’t take anything away from my writing.
On the contrary, Shadows turned out to be a much better-written novel because of this practice.
The hope is that I can do something similar with the college courses. Unfortunately, the handful of classes I need to take first don’t center around writing all that much. For instance, my first class is related to online learning.
Nonetheless, getting into the habit of a three-hour block of time for coursework and writing might be beneficial down the road. So, I might as well get started with it today.
I’m sure I’ll have to toy around with the scheduling a little bit once I get a feel for how everything will flow. But for now, I’ll use a similar scheduling layout when I took the masterclass.
Priority Stuff First, Back-Burner the Rest
Not all projects are created equal. Some things I do throughout the week are just not as important as others, especially if they’re not generating revenue in some form. As they say, time is money.
Putting in the effort to work on something that has little to no bearing on my monthly finances is a low priority.
What would this look like today? Well, client work is definitely first as they are the ones paying my mortgage. Then, the block of time for balancing college courses. Afterward, I would make the YouTube videos (they pay more than the blogs), and then a blog post.
The extras, such as working on World Anvil or experimenting with new apps, will either have to be something done during the evenings or on weekends.
With the exception of the college course, everything will align with what brings in the most money. I don’t want loans for college and plan on doing what I can to pay tuition if I can’t find some grants or scholarships.
Ideally, I would love for the YouTube channels to bring in enough each month to cover tuition costs.
College Course Videos and Blog Posts?
I plan on documenting as much of the process of getting a master’s in creative writing as possible. Like the Reedsy masterclass, the idea is to turn what I’ve learned into routine content. That will save me a bit of time on content creation.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure how much of the bachelor’s program will convert to blog posts and videos. I’m sure I can make something work with the online learning class that I am taking first. But some of the others that are on my list of “to-dos” don’t really pertain to the different brands I’m building.
In those instances, I’ll probably just make a recap of the class once it’s completed in eight weeks.
In any case, using the college course for content saves a lot of time. It’ll be interesting to see what classes have the greatest impact on both the blog and the YouTube channel.
More Blog-to-Video Content
Because I won’t have a lot of time for researching videos, I’ll more than likely be using more blog posts as video scripts. These types of videos take a little more than an hour to record and edit, making them the fastest to develop.
In some cases, I can even use the same screenshots for the video as I did for the blog.
Since there are nearly 1,000 blog posts on this site, I have quite a selection to choose from. I’m sure some of them probably won’t translate well into video, but it may give me a chance to breathe new life into an old post.
The bottom line is that I need to cut as much time as I can from content development without sacrificing quality. The quicker I can get a video published, the more time I have for something that is lower on the totem pole later in the day.
Time-Cutting Measures for Content
Speaking of time-cutting measures, I’m looking into AI tools that can help shave a bit off here and there. No, I’ll never use generative AI to write a line of text for me. However, there are video editing tools that can save me quite a bit of time throughout the week.
Currently, I’ve been using Gling to see how much time it can save me by editing videos. It’s a relatively new experiment, so I don’t have much to show at the moment. But so far, it has a bit of promise to cut a bit of time off my week.
Something else I’ve been experimenting with is using vidIQ for blog post ideas. This saves me time in sifting through data and research to find a topic that might perform well with my audience. This process saved me about two hours last week.
Finding ways to shave off time from various projects will help with balancing my college work. The problem is that I need to invest a bit of time to see if those methods are actually helpful or not. That means experimenting with them is probably best suited for the weekends.
Besides, those tools also give me content for the blog and videos. It’s a win no matter how you slice it, really. I just need to make sure I have time to cover my bases.
Focusing on Fewer Distractions
The most important element of all of this is time management. That means putting far more effort into balancing out my day regardless if I have college classes or not. The less time I waste with random diversions, the more I can put toward getting everything done.
Sure, the chaos in my life is at an all-time high. But truth be told, a lot of the problem lies with me taking too long of breaks or frequently finding other things to do that are not project-related.
This is why low-priority projects are scheduled for the last part of the day. That way, if something does sidetrack me that is unavoidable, at least I’m not sacrificing the things that bring in the most money.
Besides, there’s nothing wrong with working on a few things after hours. Most of the time, these are things I enjoy doing anyway, so it’s not like it’s taking away from personal time if I have to do something at 7:00 pm on a Thursday.
Balancing College in My Day is Possible
Despite having so much to do throughout the week, I am confident I can manage the college courses. There are a few automated tools that are going to shave off time, which will be a great help. But it mostly comes down to me focusing on those projects and getting everything done.
In other words, I need to stop getting up after 25 minutes of work and taking a 30-minute break. That is probably one of my biggest time killers.
This is my Year of Time, after all. It’s all about efficiency and making better use of what I have available. Whether I succeed or not is all on me.
- An Evening with Gary Kidney on After Hours - April 7, 2025
- Fixing a Dead Blog: March 2025 – A Bit More Growth - April 5, 2025
- Master the Art of Writing: 19 Expert Tips to Help New Authors - March 31, 2025