Some advice from someone who worked full time, commuting more than 10 hours per week, and went to graduate school half time for 3 1/2 years:
1) Experiment with background noise. For me, I found that I studied better listening to music without lyrics. Ambient or classical works well for me. When it came time to write, though, I needed quiet.
2) Get out of your living space. Out of sight, out of mind does seem to be true for distractions. If your house is messy, but you need to study before you get around to cleaning it, go someplace else to study. I personally LOVED studying at my university's library. There is just great intellectual energy at those types of places. If you're doing more rote stuff, you may have success at a coffee shop.
3) Figure out what you can skip. You'll probably have to set priorities both in your schoolwork and in the rest of your life. In my graduate program there were a few classes where doing all of the assigned reading actually HURT my learning - so I didn't do it. You may also want to skip assignments that don't contribute much to your overall grade.
4) Don't fight with your "monkey mind." If you've been away from school for a while you'll find that you've developed a raging case of Adult ADD! Don't fight with your mind when it wants to wander - that takes too much energy. Instead, do what the Zen masters do, and gently redirect your attention every time it wanders. Be kind and patient with yourself or grad school will be miserable.
Best of luck with your studies.
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