A post in 3 parts by Jaemi Sawyer, Guest Blogger. Jaemi is a Marketing Manager in the Washington, D.C. Metro Area. She is currently a student at Franklin Pierce University eCollege.

In my first post, I mentioned that you might find your online program requiring much more personal investment than you’d think. The reason I say that is because another thing I realized once I started is that I didn’t actually get to do things on my own time. It was not my time; rather, it was still the professor’s. I didn’t realize that things would be due on certain days of the week, and that if you did not get them in on time, your grade was deducted. I think that between all of the reading in the book, the online lectures, and the “in-class” discussion and assignments, I easily spend more of my time working on schoolwork than I would have if I had spent two or three days in the classroom. An online program is a HUGE commitment. This is when I realized that time management has a whole new meaning.

When I first started classes, I was working well over 40 hours a week and also trying to have a social life and meet more people in my new city, but let me tell you— I found myself having to say “no” to a lot of invites because of school. Papers were due; discussions on Wednesday interrupted happy hour. I had to figure out how to handle work, school, and life.

I would talk to other students in my class and honestly had no idea how they could do it. Many were single parents who worked full-time, and here I was complaining that I couldn’t go out for 25-cent Wing Night! It was actually the students who had it all who showed me how to do it all. I swear, any single parent going back to school full-time, online, and working a full-time job— you are my hero!

But you just need to find what works for you as an individual. Is it staying late after work a few days and just logging on there and getting your assignment done? It could be writing it in your day planner, Blackberry, iPhone, or wall calendar (if you don’t have one of these, I would suggest, at the very least, investing in a wall calendar— you are going to need it!)…. Whatever it takes, the thing to remember is that we are only given so much time in a day, so we have to use it to the best of our advantage.