In the past 3 weeks, I have found myself balancing two graduate courses at the same time. It's the first semester that I challenge myself to take 2 courses and so far, I have not fallen behind with any of the work. It's important to note that I'm currently on maternity leave and I have a great baby and a fantastic support system. Please do not compare yourself to me if you're working full-time and feel overwhelmed with one course, our realities and responsibilities are all different!

My initial tip would be to stay organized and see what's coming ahead of time. In the first week of this semester, I wrote down all of the readings and assignments in a google document in "to-do" lists and I separated them into weeks. As a visual person, I like to see the check mark when I've completed a task. Literally, everything I need to do is in these Google documents, from readings, to assignments, to forum discussions to replying to classmates in the forum. When it's done, I check it off.

My second tip would be to not mix the two courses when you start doing some work. The formula that's been working for me is one day I work on course number one and the next day I'll work on the course number two. It is easy to see your work as a mountain when you stress over both courses at the same time. This is counterproductive and the work will not be completed faster if you attempt to complete too many things at the same time.

My third tip would be to schedule time for your studies exactly like you would schedule a shift to work. Studying online can be challenging since you're not committing to be somewhere on time. It is easy to decide to do something else or to face other responsibilities instead of working on your school work. For me, committing to working on my courses from 7 pm - 9 pm 4 times a week has been essential. If I feel as if I'm falling behind, I will add more time slots within my week. If you're betraying your time slots and are tempted to do something else during those times you could meet someone else to study. That way, you're committing to that person to show up on time and do work.

Hopefully, this motivates you to complete more than one course at the same time! Remember, every extra course that you add to your semester makes you a little bit closer to graduating!