ADVANCE consulted health care professionals, productivity coaches, professors and more who have all been there and provided their best strategies for juggling school and work.

1. Plan ahead
Rivka Caroline, MS, a productivity coach, entrepreneur, mom of five, and graduate student, certainly knows how to function with a full plate. Her key to success? Planning ahead. "Failing to plan will amount to planning to fail," Caroline stressed. "There is no 'winging it' when there is a proposal due at work, a paper due at school, and it's science project week. Take the weekend to plan for the week."

Caroline teaches adult learners, especially parents, to systematize as much as possible. One example she likes to share is the time savings achieved by a simple lunch or dinner schedule. Turkey sandwiches on Mondays. Pasta Tuesdays. "It sounds extreme, but most moms could have earned a PhD in the time they will spend over 20 years deciding what to serve for dinner," she stated. "Don't waste energy reinventing the wheel."

Caroline also encourages working students to think in the 80/20 zone. "Plan ahead of time what are the 20 percent of items that will yield 80 percent of the benefits in each of your fields," she added.

Ann Leslie Claesson, PhD, BSN, PSP, FACHE, a health care executive, author, and online faculty member for Capella University in Minneapolis, has been in health care for more than 20 years.

She advises professional students to hang a large, yearlong calendar in their personal work spaces at home. Mark the calendar with important dates in different colors, choosing a different color for personal, professional, and academic commitments. Reserve an additional color for the unexpected obligations that can occur on short notice but must be dealt with.

"Once you have identified what is important [and necessary] in your life, you can begin to use the short- and long-term planning skills you acquired as a health care professional to organize your weekly, monthly, and annual schedule," she noted.

2. Form a support network
Eric Chen, MSM, MSAT, MBA, JD, has worked with biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and managed care companies his whole life. After obtaining his own advanced degrees, Chen was instrumental in designing the Healthcare Systems Management Certificate offered as part of the management program at Saint Joseph College in West Hartford, CT, where he is an assistant professor.

As an adult learner who struggled to advance his education while employed, Chen tells his peers none of his accomplishments would be possible without the active support of family and friends, who would pitch in to help with tasks like picking up his children from school.

Indeed, it helps tremendously to obtain buy-in from the significant people in your life, Claesson agreed. "Let those who are important to you know that you are in school and are carrying an additional load," she advised. "Ask them for their help, guidance, and insight so that you can do this together."

While putting school first may help you graduate at the top of your class and earn a salary increase at work, ignoring the needs of your significant other, family members, friends, or co-workers can alienate people who do not feel a part of the process, Claesson cautioned. "Let your family and your work supervisor know in advance when you expect key academic due dates and obligations so they can assist you in attaining your goals," she said.

"Meeting the demands of a job is demanding enough. Layering in school on top of the job is downright difficult," Chen stressed. "Without a strong support network and agreement by the family to work toward the common goal, problems will undoubtedly arise."

3. Prioritize
Deborah A. Legge, PhD, CRC, LMHC, licensed mental health counselor and director of the master's degree in mental health counseling program at Medaille College in Buffalo, NY, knows firsthand the challenges involved in juggling responsibilities and managing time while working full time and going to school. "When I did it, I had a young child and I did not want to take away time from him either," she told ADVANCE.

Legge tells her students, "you can have just about anything you want - but you can't have everything you want." There is only so much time, she said. "Juggling work, school, and other commitments requires one to prioritize and make tough choices, knowing that it is not forever."

Claesson added priorities should include everything that is important to you in your professional, personal, and academic life. Planning ahead includes recognizing what you need to do, when, and for whom. "You have three areas where you should plan ahead," she noted, "your personal life (e.g., special events such as birthdays, anniversaries, child-school events, holidays, athletic events, etc.); your professional life (e.g., due dates for projects and work-related situations); and your academic life (e.g., courses and the sequence in which they will be taken, beginning and end of semesters, target graduation date, etc.)."

Claesson also schools students to use their knowledge and experience in health care to their advantage and triage tasks into categories of importance. "Decide how you will do this by organizing your time, personal work space, and duties," she said. "While stress is a usual and somewhat expected part of health care, don't let it overwhelm or confuse what is important. Use your triage skills to your advantage."

4. Benchmark Progress
Chen reminds his students planning is not a one-way street. Use one of the tools frequently utilized in the health care arena and benchmark your progress. He teaches his students to sit down for 5-10 minutes at the beginning of the day to create a to-do list and start the day on track. But it doesn't end there. Before leaving for the day, Chen takes stock of what he accomplished and assesses his progress, analyzing what came up to prevent him from accomplishing everything on his list. "After I benchmark, I can tinker to see if there's anything that I can do better and react to things that I didn't anticipate," he said.

He encourages students to expand this system of checks and balances to a weekly and monthly basis to track progress on short- (e.g., read a journal article or write a paper) and long-term goals (e.g., gather research on a thesis topic).

5. Loosen Up
Finally, Claesson advised, release your need to control it all. All the advanced planning and organization in the world cannot prevent the unexpected, she noted.

"People get sick, cars break, Internet connections disappear, mandatory overtime becomes a reality, bills come due and computers freeze at the most inopportune times," Claesson said. "By choosing to release responsibility in areas where you have no control, you can maintain a healthier outlook and be able to deal with whatever realities in life may occur."

When an unexpected situation occurs, whether it's a crisis at work or three children with the flu, be honest with yourself and with your instructors about your ability to stay on task, she suggested. Ask for a temporary extension on your current assignment.

"Instructors do care and want the best for you and your academic experience," Claesson reminded. "Keep in mind that your academic advisor is there to assist you, too, so it is OK to ask for help and let people know what is going on with you."

Remember to take your educational journey one day at a time. There will be good days and tough days, but they are all bringing you one step closer to your professional goals. "School is a marathon, not a sprint," Chen noted.

Kerri Hatt is on staff at ADVANCE.