So, here was the plan….quite simple really…I would study half the time on module 1 and half the time on module 2, following a weekly based work plan within a weekly schedule where I time myself in one hour increments and fit my amateur brain surgery hobby, saving the world and cooking gourmet food for the family every night in between bouts of highly productive study, all the while looking fabulous and never having bad nails, bad hair days or the temptation to pig out on jaffa cakes.

Control. Poise. Composure. And blindingly good assignment results. These are my strategic goals for the next 3 months of module 2.

Anyone who has kids will by this point be rolling on the floor crying with laughter at my naievity.

The first thing I discovered painfully quickly – and this was something of a revelation to me – I don’t really seem to do multi-tasking all that well. Especially when the multi-tasking involves studying two modules at once. It is just not gonna work! So after introducing myself to the new tutor for module 2 and explaining my grand plans for world domination (or even module domination) to him at some length, I then totally abandoned ship and spent a good 3 weeks working on the module 1 assignment and pretending module 2 didn’t really exist, only to then have a little squizz at the module 2 ilearn environment one sunny Monday morning and totally freak out at the 21 unread messages on the group discussion board! It seems like every student in the world has posted on that board in the last few weeks except me! And how on earth did some of them get on to Product Differentiation so damned quickly???! That’s unit 6 for Gods sake!!!

Anyway – I have now pretty much finished my assignment for module 1, and sent it off to the tutor for approval. Now all I have to do (all I have to do???!) is follow the plan contained within for the next year or so and keep it updated on a weekly basis. Not rocket science. I hope. So – on with module number 2!

After sifting through all 21 postings plus various other comments and discussions on the module forum, I started getting to grips with the various units on the ilearn environment. I am starting to develop “A System” now – a method of taking notes in such a way that I can reference things and find them again relatively easily. Wish I could do the same in the house! This is going to be useful when the next assignment comes around, finding things more easily. It is especially good practice for me as I have a tendency to get carried away with my writing. But anyone reading this blog will have noticed that already….!

So – the new game plan is to make useful concise notes, to focus on only one module at a time, and to intersperse bouts of learning and note-taking with reading and further research to get me away from the computer – and preferably onto the couch which is really where I need to be with my feet up as things are starting to get alarmingly large alarmingly fast! My neat little bumps of days gone by that I wistfully remembered before going for a third don’t seem to have materialised this time, other than for a brief week around month 4. This time I seem to be expanding like one of those giant balloons you see at the Macy’s store parade, and I am seriously starting to wonder if my arms will be long enough to reach the keyboard by October in order to complete and send the assignment for module 2 at all! Eeek! If I go pop it is going to make a terrible mess of my laptop!

Having already completed the HND, I am finding that this module covers a lot of the ground we have already studied, so I am not coming to the topic completely new which is useful for several reasons: I already have some inkling of what on earth the writer is talking about, I still have my notes and textbooks from the HND which are very useful as a reference, and I am finding that adding more depth and breadth to what I already know is kind of fun! I’m sure there are many that will beg to differ with the idea that studying business strategy is “fun” – but again, I think because I am coming to this as a ….I hate to even say it…”mature” student – I am finding it very relevant to experience and knowledge I already have. Like I am now applying the theory to what I have already done in practice. Just as well then that I am actually not a rocket scientist or this could have been very bad for us all!

I seem to be settling into a comfortable pattern of studying about 10 hours a week now (excluding coffee breaks!) RDI recommend around 12 hours a week so it feels about right. If you are one of those lucky people that can study and remember everything straight away you can probably do it in considerably less time. If you are as obsessive compulsive as me about studying you will need more time. Studying seems to be one of those annoying “piece of string” things where you can never do too much. I always finish something and then think “Ah! But if I looked up one more reference I might find something so dazzlingly brilliant that I will not only get a first class degree but an MBE, the keys to the City of London, an honorary doctorate and a blessing from the Dalai Lama.” And then I realise that in fact, that the keys to the City of London are probably not much use to me anyway, and it is far better to stick to the plan and get the degree without an MBE and a nervous breakdown. In any case, I hear the Dalai Lama is a very nice man and I am sure he will bless me anyway if I ask him nicely, dazzling brilliance or no dazzling brilliance.

I tell you, if I can manage my final year of uni, with two kids, whilst pregnant, in a foreign country, organise a house move (probably early next year) and both kids starting new schools next April, and STILL pass this degree - I can project manage myself out of anything!

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