A tip for organising your study time (not my own idea, it’s off an OU study guide) is to make a diary and record when, where, what and how long you study for. Try different ways, different times of day, different anything and note down how it goes. I started out religiously doing my study at a certain time each day but when I looked hard at what I was doing I found that snatching 10 minutes throughout the day was a lot more useful, made much better use of the time and I didn’t go planning next year’s holiday half way through my study time! It did mean I needed to leave everything easily accessable rather than tidy though.

I have compartmentalized into hour long increments, ie 2 hours for work, then an hour for dinner and catch up with husband, followed by an hour of studying.. wish me luck

How do I do it? I’m not sure! I’ve started using a timer to get housework done and to make myself focus on tasks. I work when my toddler’s asleep (if she takes a nap, and definitely after she goes to bed). I’m often up quite late.

And we have our favorite lineup of TV shows, which keep her occupied for maybe 10 minutes at a time. And I have a few DVD’s when I need a break other times of the day.

Since your husband comes home in the evenings, even though he’s tired, I would power-work for an hour (set the timer).

I don’t cook a whole lot (there’s only two of us), but if she ate more I would sometimes buy a prepared roast that might last us a couple of days. I’ll let you know when we get to that point.

But try a timer! Setting it for just 15 minutes helps you stick to a task, or at least pause it when the baby interrupts.