Making a Date With The GMAT

The dilemma lies in how to balance my current and future workload, “distractions” of any sort and GMAT prep.  I think this is something that other MBA hopefuls also struggling with – whether to take on added responsibilities that might propel us to higher levels, challenge us, increase confidence from our supervisors, and that offer a diversity of learning experiences to draw from, but juggling that with GMAT/B-School preparation. When I’m not working, I feel like I need to be studying, and often when I’m on the road my work/personal time boundaries are blurry.

Meaning, getting back to the hotel after a long day of on-site work, I can either catch up on work that I’ve missed during the day, study the GMAT and work on B-school research, sneak in a workout or soak in the hotel jaccuzzi.  All while watching CSI Miami in the background, though its hard to multi-task with David Caruso’s one liners 🙂

Case in point: During one recent week, I’ve been working the conference and my Monday consisted of conference craziness 8-6, updating team notes 6-8, dinner with co-workers 8-10, and catching up on work from 10-midnight. The next day, I woke up for a 6:30 a.m. Webinar presentation to a new client in Bahrain before hitting the conference again.

Where was GMAT studying in all of this? Embarrassingly enough, absent, much like my patience for spotty wireless, dang you AT&T mobile card!  The last thing I want to do after working all day is crack open the GMAT book, even though it’s staring at me from my hotel nightstand.

Two takeaways:

A: Standing on your feet in heels all day is a pain. LITERALLY. I proudly admit I’m a shoe girl and I love my heels. Bring two pairs of shoe and rotate out, as the pain is from pressure points on the foot, which would then be distributed. Different shoes impact different pressure points, and that should help alleviate the pain.

B: Find ways to stay motivated about the application process and remain immersed in B-School thoughts. I try not to lose sight of these goals. Through my networking at the conference, I met several educational entrepreneurs, which I plan on following up with, and a graduate of Kellogg who currently works there. Speaking with them provided me with an idea of what I can do with the MBA and kept me reminded that I need to keep moving forward. During the breaks, I would check the GMAT flashcard app on my phone from Veritas Prep and Beat the GMAT.

I guess the biggest news to share, is that….*drumroll please*….for the indecisive girl that procrastinates like crazy… I’ve FINALLY signed up for the GMAT!  The magic date is August 8^th – I feel like this needs to be made into a fridge magnet like the “Save the Date!” wedding ones that I’m starting to receive, and passed out to my friends for them to stick on their fridges.  This way, they can be reminded of the duration of and why I’m going into hiding and that their attempts to flaunt anything entertaining or time consuming will be flatly rejected.

Frighteningly enough, that’s right around the corner! However, I’ve realized that the only way for me to truly be serious and focused about studying is to have a date set on the calendar. That way, I can see the end in mind and work towards it intently.