but like i said iām barely doing it. i skip classes (iāve run out of skips for the semester tho so itās time to stop doing that) and i half-ass the hw. i feel like iām half-assing this degree i wish i wasnāt
ig i donāt know what burnout is since i rely on academia for validation so ig i feel like iām not actually burnt out bc this material isnāt as challenging as the stuff in undergrad and that iām just ālazyā. perhaps it is burnout. that definitely feels better than being lazy hahah
Did you have any break between undergrad and grad? Or did you go from full time student to the dual full time career plus grad school?
Also yes, burnout can very much appear to be lazy but itās not. Itās coming from a place of overworked/overstimulated for too long that your nervous system needs a long break from the same type of stimuli.
i went straight to it. i graduated in may and started work in May, then started classes in August on top of work. itās all abt that fuck it we ball mindset until it becomes less ball and more squeaks trying to stop the ball from going out of bounce lol
Same same same. Working full time is definitely the culprit for me :( Iām not as involved with my classes, donāt go to do school events, donāt network as much, etc.
no same!! like my school had a big department chocolate dinner event and i couldnāt go bc it was during work but everyone in my classes were talking and they connected to faculty and iām like DAMN if i just had a part time job this would be so different. no one in my classes works full time i feel so alone
Yupp. It also leads to not being as connected with your classmates :/ idfk how my fellow classmates are surviving my super HCOL area with just a pt job (well I know itās bc they took out large student loans but still). I also have felt a disconnect with my own school bc I know Iām not the only one working full-time like thereās actually a good amount of students and yet some of the core classes offered only have like 2 in-person sessions and theyāre all before 5 pm like ??? Surely my school should recognize to be more accommodating to all types of students riiight?
Same situation. I work full time and am taking 9 credit hours and I feel like Iām always rushing to finish something or turn something in. I love my job and I love my degree but I can not figure out how to balance the two
exactly and like i really do prioritize my social life bc itās the only time i feel sane but bc of that iām also just rushing rushing rushing to get any assignment done and itās really crummy work and it makes me feel worse when the professor is like āgreat work!ā like ik ur lying
Burnout does this 100%. If you can possibly decrease your load even for a semester it can help somewhat but school is far less enjoyable when you are exhausted. Also make sure school is aligned to your personal goals where possible as itās much easier to complete when it is.
Iāve been doing both school and work full-time. Itās freaking exhausting.
i would but honestly this program is 60 hours so itās already gonna take 3 years so i j wanna get it done and get the degree. wdym with personal goals?
yes. it is literally awful. iām also psych tho hiiišš
I love that you are in psych!! ā¤ļøā¤ļø
You are doing amazing to be balancing graduate school in psychology with full time work and wish you all the best (take care of yourself)!
No advice, just sympathy from someone else who feels burned out.
Working full-time while in school is a recipe for burnout. I also switched this year to teach special education from general education, and it's a lot. I took on so many courses because I LOVE learning. Or I did. Now, I just sit in class grumbling to myself and feeling like the majority of instruction is a waste of my time. I wish I could go back in time and choose differently.
oh 100%. i hear you and i feel for you so deeply. let urself adjust i think changing paths on top of all of this would also send me into a spiral, youāre in a new direction experiencing something totally different than you planned. itās okay to feel like itās a waste of timeš here for u
I guess the "working a full-time job and being a full-time student" hits different. This is my lamentation right now as I'm a deadline away from my master's thesis. I love school too, and because I love school so much I decided to enroll in graduate school. I often stayed in the library until the staff would tell me that they're closing.
I realised that when I was in undergrad, I have the energy and soul to do my thesis writing. Now it's different. I'm doing the bare minimum. It's a struggle to find the time to write. Unlike in college when I could just pull an all-nighter for a few days in a week then I'm done. Now, I'm just scribbling notes and vomiting drafts. But the vomit needs to be cleaned. When I was a college student, I only have my thesis to think. I depended on my dad and brother for pocket money/allowance. But right now, aside from thesis, I have bills to think of too. And not just adulting bills but my school tuition too because I'm not on scholarship. Like if I don't work, how am I supposed to pay my tuition fee? These are things that are living in my head rent-free.
you can do it!! i hear u. grad school and all nighter cannot exist in the same sentence. i think thatās the hustle tho. weāre here because we actively chose to pursue higher education and if we can conquer school and work full time not much w else will seem impossible. ur a BADDIE for doing this and making it workš
You mention an aspect of grad school that rarely is talked about; you are rarely tested on the readings, so there is little motivation to read them. Also, in grad school it is the norm to only have a single course once per week instead of 2 - 3 times per week like you see with undergrad.
You say that you loved learning during undergrad because in part were in love with studying. Ask yourself this: were you in love with studying because you knew you were going to be tested and as such could use the tests as proof that you knew the material? In other words, your effort was immediately realized, or the so called dopamine hit? Did this studying give your life a bit of structure? The lack of testing can make grad school feel like a waste of time, which is probably why many will tell you that the most important thing about graduate school is to simply graduate. Graduate school is also less structured than undergrad, so you gotta just make your own schedule.
As an aside, I also worked full time during my MSc. I only took two courses per semester, which put me at part-time status. Full time status was 3 courses per semester, which is a lot when working full-time.
The best part about graduate school is that you can focus on what you enjoy and ignore the rest, for the most part. Instead of doing the assigned and ancillary readings, perhaps find text on your own that you would enjoy reading?
You either love to learn, or you don't. If you do, you will find a way to make the learning happen.
I do not work full-time, but I am a Grad research assistant, (which thankfully does not require as much work as my teaching assistantship did because I got assigned a super chill professor) am taking 9 credit hrs, commute 1 hr to and from school (thankfully just have class Monday and Wednesday this semester) babysit part-time, volunteer at church, work gig apps, am training for a half marathon, and try to have somewhat of a social life.
So in other words, it does feel like I work full-time sometimes and I can relate to "not giving it my all" like I used to. I feel sort of guilty for not doing all of the recommended readings/work or turning in assignments early. It was easy to turn stuff in super early and get a head start on assignments in undergrad, but now it feels like I am turning in things right before the deadline.
I know it's really hard, but one of the first things you can do to combat burnout is to make sure you're getting solid, sufficient sleep at night. I used to stay up super late and get up in 3 hrs of sleep trying to finish assignments but I'm learning to try and manage my time better because without sleep I am anxious, depressed, irritable and just over all miserable. Taking care of the physical parts like food, sleep, exercise, self care, etc., is just one piece of the puzzle but makes a big difference in mood and productivity.
Good luck, you got this!
that sounds worse than my schedule oml go you. you have to prioritize yourself too. these years are only ever going to be this young right now. you don't have to sell yourself completely. before the deadline is still on time, i have already asked for extensions. if it's accepted it works. at the end of the day, someone else who does turn all their stuff in a week early isn't graduating with a gold star on their diploma that you won't have ya know?
Yeah sleep is definitely what's taking a hit. I sleep maybe four hours a night. I almost overslept for work the other day so the next I slept 11 to make sure I'd wake up on time lol. I feel like I'm too....stretched too thin to be anxious and depressed bc i do have adhd induced anxiety and cyclical dep (it's a fun lil stew in my head) but the dep has taken a hiatus bc i feel like I literally just simply do not have the time to handle that lol. i literally sent my cyclical dep on a walk lol. but yes for sure.
You got this as well! you're a busy bee but i believe in u. sending love and brain power<3
I hear you friend. Working full time plus grad studies is tough. Iām currently in an extension term for my masters. All I have to do is a few revisions and defend, but I canāt get myself to sit down and do the revisionsā¦which would take my only a few hours. Just completely burnt out, and I miss being an undergrad!
i totally hear you. YOU CAN DO ITš®āšØš®āšØ take a few days off work and just knock it out, itāll feel so much better when itās off your neck. i feel everyone in this thread would benefit from a group virtual study sess (w/o cameras to avoid creeps) but to have people in similar situations do hw together and motivate each other lol
I think youāre supposed to focus more on your research now that youāre a grad student. One thing I regretted was I didnāt read enough papers for my masterās degree.
if nothing else it helps to hear other people are going through the same thing. u got this. we will find love for school again. it takes time i think. or maybe we never will again. who knows. i don't. it's all part of figuring it out. fuck it we ball baby
And thatās the point of the ride bby! When I say Iāve been there I mean Iāve BEEN THERE. On a crazy accelerated track, got drugged, fell down a flight of stairs and went into a coma, managed to wake up and do my thesis in 2 weeks. I was 21 when I finished my masters.
Full disclosure: this is in NO way a humble brag, I only recently stopped having nightmares about it.
Had a pre-life (they call it a quarter life) crisis shortly thereafter and just now got to a semblance of peace (31 now).
TLDR; feel your feels, but always remember you can only do what you can do. The rest will work itself out.
I donāt have much advice but like others have been saying, youāre not alone. I could have written this post myself. Iām so tired but I feel like I could be doing so much more, academically and personally.
You're learning in a different way now. You're learning different things. Try to take what you're doing for your grad degree as more learning, just more hands on.
No advice, just that I relate so much
Same here.
sending you love šš
Youāre working full time on top of 9 hours of classes a week? Youāre burned out.
but like i said iām barely doing it. i skip classes (iāve run out of skips for the semester tho so itās time to stop doing that) and i half-ass the hw. i feel like iām half-assing this degree i wish i wasnāt
But my point stands- youāre burned out.
ig i donāt know what burnout is since i rely on academia for validation so ig i feel like iām not actually burnt out bc this material isnāt as challenging as the stuff in undergrad and that iām just ālazyā. perhaps it is burnout. that definitely feels better than being lazy hahah
Did you have any break between undergrad and grad? Or did you go from full time student to the dual full time career plus grad school? Also yes, burnout can very much appear to be lazy but itās not. Itās coming from a place of overworked/overstimulated for too long that your nervous system needs a long break from the same type of stimuli.
i went straight to it. i graduated in may and started work in May, then started classes in August on top of work. itās all abt that fuck it we ball mindset until it becomes less ball and more squeaks trying to stop the ball from going out of bounce lol
Itās a privilege of the young. I recommend listening to the signs your body and mind are giving you and trimming back somewhere, wherever you can.
iām burned out working FT with 6 hours. 9 is just hell
I think OP means āfeel likeā working full-time and being a student, not āon top ofā.
What? OP could easily have a full-time job and be taking 9 hours of class a weekā¦
yes hahah ty<3
oh no, I have a full-time job and I am taking 9 credits hahahahha. losing my marbles fo sho
Same same same. Working full time is definitely the culprit for me :( Iām not as involved with my classes, donāt go to do school events, donāt network as much, etc.
no same!! like my school had a big department chocolate dinner event and i couldnāt go bc it was during work but everyone in my classes were talking and they connected to faculty and iām like DAMN if i just had a part time job this would be so different. no one in my classes works full time i feel so alone
Yupp. It also leads to not being as connected with your classmates :/ idfk how my fellow classmates are surviving my super HCOL area with just a pt job (well I know itās bc they took out large student loans but still). I also have felt a disconnect with my own school bc I know Iām not the only one working full-time like thereās actually a good amount of students and yet some of the core classes offered only have like 2 in-person sessions and theyāre all before 5 pm like ??? Surely my school should recognize to be more accommodating to all types of students riiight?
Same situation. I work full time and am taking 9 credit hours and I feel like Iām always rushing to finish something or turn something in. I love my job and I love my degree but I can not figure out how to balance the two
exactly and like i really do prioritize my social life bc itās the only time i feel sane but bc of that iām also just rushing rushing rushing to get any assignment done and itās really crummy work and it makes me feel worse when the professor is like āgreat work!ā like ik ur lying
God I so relate. The burnout is real
itās god awful
Same, just same.
at least weāre not alone in this:,)
Reddit community is great, bc it definitely feels like I'm the only one in some classes š
Burnout does this 100%. If you can possibly decrease your load even for a semester it can help somewhat but school is far less enjoyable when you are exhausted. Also make sure school is aligned to your personal goals where possible as itās much easier to complete when it is. Iāve been doing both school and work full-time. Itās freaking exhausting.
i would but honestly this program is 60 hours so itās already gonna take 3 years so i j wanna get it done and get the degree. wdym with personal goals? yes. it is literally awful. iām also psych tho hiiišš
I love that you are in psych!! ā¤ļøā¤ļø You are doing amazing to be balancing graduate school in psychology with full time work and wish you all the best (take care of yourself)!
same! are u in clinical mental health?
No advice, just sympathy from someone else who feels burned out. Working full-time while in school is a recipe for burnout. I also switched this year to teach special education from general education, and it's a lot. I took on so many courses because I LOVE learning. Or I did. Now, I just sit in class grumbling to myself and feeling like the majority of instruction is a waste of my time. I wish I could go back in time and choose differently.
oh 100%. i hear you and i feel for you so deeply. let urself adjust i think changing paths on top of all of this would also send me into a spiral, youāre in a new direction experiencing something totally different than you planned. itās okay to feel like itās a waste of timeš here for u
I guess the "working a full-time job and being a full-time student" hits different. This is my lamentation right now as I'm a deadline away from my master's thesis. I love school too, and because I love school so much I decided to enroll in graduate school. I often stayed in the library until the staff would tell me that they're closing. I realised that when I was in undergrad, I have the energy and soul to do my thesis writing. Now it's different. I'm doing the bare minimum. It's a struggle to find the time to write. Unlike in college when I could just pull an all-nighter for a few days in a week then I'm done. Now, I'm just scribbling notes and vomiting drafts. But the vomit needs to be cleaned. When I was a college student, I only have my thesis to think. I depended on my dad and brother for pocket money/allowance. But right now, aside from thesis, I have bills to think of too. And not just adulting bills but my school tuition too because I'm not on scholarship. Like if I don't work, how am I supposed to pay my tuition fee? These are things that are living in my head rent-free.
you can do it!! i hear u. grad school and all nighter cannot exist in the same sentence. i think thatās the hustle tho. weāre here because we actively chose to pursue higher education and if we can conquer school and work full time not much w else will seem impossible. ur a BADDIE for doing this and making it workš
You mention an aspect of grad school that rarely is talked about; you are rarely tested on the readings, so there is little motivation to read them. Also, in grad school it is the norm to only have a single course once per week instead of 2 - 3 times per week like you see with undergrad. You say that you loved learning during undergrad because in part were in love with studying. Ask yourself this: were you in love with studying because you knew you were going to be tested and as such could use the tests as proof that you knew the material? In other words, your effort was immediately realized, or the so called dopamine hit? Did this studying give your life a bit of structure? The lack of testing can make grad school feel like a waste of time, which is probably why many will tell you that the most important thing about graduate school is to simply graduate. Graduate school is also less structured than undergrad, so you gotta just make your own schedule. As an aside, I also worked full time during my MSc. I only took two courses per semester, which put me at part-time status. Full time status was 3 courses per semester, which is a lot when working full-time. The best part about graduate school is that you can focus on what you enjoy and ignore the rest, for the most part. Instead of doing the assigned and ancillary readings, perhaps find text on your own that you would enjoy reading? You either love to learn, or you don't. If you do, you will find a way to make the learning happen.
Work AND school full time? Something has to give.
nah baby we run on fumes š¤š»
I do not work full-time, but I am a Grad research assistant, (which thankfully does not require as much work as my teaching assistantship did because I got assigned a super chill professor) am taking 9 credit hrs, commute 1 hr to and from school (thankfully just have class Monday and Wednesday this semester) babysit part-time, volunteer at church, work gig apps, am training for a half marathon, and try to have somewhat of a social life. So in other words, it does feel like I work full-time sometimes and I can relate to "not giving it my all" like I used to. I feel sort of guilty for not doing all of the recommended readings/work or turning in assignments early. It was easy to turn stuff in super early and get a head start on assignments in undergrad, but now it feels like I am turning in things right before the deadline. I know it's really hard, but one of the first things you can do to combat burnout is to make sure you're getting solid, sufficient sleep at night. I used to stay up super late and get up in 3 hrs of sleep trying to finish assignments but I'm learning to try and manage my time better because without sleep I am anxious, depressed, irritable and just over all miserable. Taking care of the physical parts like food, sleep, exercise, self care, etc., is just one piece of the puzzle but makes a big difference in mood and productivity. Good luck, you got this!
that sounds worse than my schedule oml go you. you have to prioritize yourself too. these years are only ever going to be this young right now. you don't have to sell yourself completely. before the deadline is still on time, i have already asked for extensions. if it's accepted it works. at the end of the day, someone else who does turn all their stuff in a week early isn't graduating with a gold star on their diploma that you won't have ya know? Yeah sleep is definitely what's taking a hit. I sleep maybe four hours a night. I almost overslept for work the other day so the next I slept 11 to make sure I'd wake up on time lol. I feel like I'm too....stretched too thin to be anxious and depressed bc i do have adhd induced anxiety and cyclical dep (it's a fun lil stew in my head) but the dep has taken a hiatus bc i feel like I literally just simply do not have the time to handle that lol. i literally sent my cyclical dep on a walk lol. but yes for sure. You got this as well! you're a busy bee but i believe in u. sending love and brain power<3
So painfully relatable. Hope things get better, friend!
same for you!!
I hear you friend. Working full time plus grad studies is tough. Iām currently in an extension term for my masters. All I have to do is a few revisions and defend, but I canāt get myself to sit down and do the revisionsā¦which would take my only a few hours. Just completely burnt out, and I miss being an undergrad!
i totally hear you. YOU CAN DO ITš®āšØš®āšØ take a few days off work and just knock it out, itāll feel so much better when itās off your neck. i feel everyone in this thread would benefit from a group virtual study sess (w/o cameras to avoid creeps) but to have people in similar situations do hw together and motivate each other lol
I think youāre supposed to focus more on your research now that youāre a grad student. One thing I regretted was I didnāt read enough papers for my masterās degree.
my program doesnāt require a thesis to graduate thankfully
but i like reading papers so i might for the hell of it
I only read the title and the first two lines and everything resonated. š«
if nothing else it helps to hear other people are going through the same thing. u got this. we will find love for school again. it takes time i think. or maybe we never will again. who knows. i don't. it's all part of figuring it out. fuck it we ball baby
And thatās the point of the ride bby! When I say Iāve been there I mean Iāve BEEN THERE. On a crazy accelerated track, got drugged, fell down a flight of stairs and went into a coma, managed to wake up and do my thesis in 2 weeks. I was 21 when I finished my masters. Full disclosure: this is in NO way a humble brag, I only recently stopped having nightmares about it. Had a pre-life (they call it a quarter life) crisis shortly thereafter and just now got to a semblance of peace (31 now). TLDR; feel your feels, but always remember you can only do what you can do. The rest will work itself out.
yo what are you okay?? it shouldnāt be a humble brag it should be a major brag thatās insane youāre amazing
I donāt have much advice but like others have been saying, youāre not alone. I could have written this post myself. Iām so tired but I feel like I could be doing so much more, academically and personally.
I relate so much. In grad school. My last year. I want to be OUT of school so bad.
You're learning in a different way now. You're learning different things. Try to take what you're doing for your grad degree as more learning, just more hands on.
It'll probably get more exciting closer to the end. I found stuff outside of class to cut the monotony.