Exams are challenging enough without adding sleepless nights into the mix. Drawing on her own experience, Jennifer Dugdale – Managing Director of Brand Financial Training, shares some practical tips for studying with a newborn at home.
There are difficult times to take a professional qualification, and then there’s trying to do it with a newborn in the house.
Broken sleep, feeding, endless washing, nappy changing and, somewhere amongst all of that, attempting to retain the finer details of pensions, taxation, and trusts.
I’ve seen this one from both sides – alongside my own experience of professional study, my husband Josh started his CII Diploma in October 2024.
Our son arrived that December, which meant much of his Diploma was completed right in the thick of the newborn stage.
He wasn’t the one breastfeeding, admittedly, but he was still living through the sleepless nights, unpredictable days and enormous adjustment that comes with becoming a parent.
Watching him study during that period gave me an appreciation for just how difficult it can be.
So, if you’re currently trying to combine professional development with keeping a tiny human alive, here are three things that might make it a little more manageable.
1. Find somewhere you can actually switch off
This was probably the biggest thing that helped Josh.
Trying to study in the same room as a newborn is difficult. Even when somebody else is looking after the baby, it’s incredibly hard to concentrate when you can hear them crying or know there are things happening around you.
Josh needed somewhere he could physically remove himself from family life for a short period.
His solution wasn’t particularly glamorous – He put a chair at the bottom of the garden.
That became his study spot. He could take his materials down there, get away from the noise of the house and concentrate properly for a while (until the next-door neighbours came outside for a chat!)
Your version might be a spare bedroom, the office after everyone else has gone home, a library, or even a quiet coffee shop. The important thing is having somewhere that tells your brain: I’m here to study.
It can also help with the guilt that comes with trying to do two things at once. Rather than half-studying while also feeling as though you should be helping with the baby, agree a period of protected time with your partner or family, go somewhere quiet and make that time count.
It doesn’t have to be hours – protected 30/40 minute blocks is all you need consistently.
2. Forget the perfect study timetable
Before children, it might be perfectly realistic to decide that every Tuesday and Thursday evening from 7pm until 9pm is study time.
Newborns have absolutely no respect for your revision timetable.
Some days you’ll have a beautifully timed nap and unexpectedly find yourself with an hour to spare. Other days, the baby will refuse to sleep anywhere except on somebody’s chest and your carefully planned evening will disappear completely.
You have to work with that unpredictability rather than constantly feeling as though you’re failing because of it.
Look for opportunities rather than perfect study sessions. Twenty minutes of practice questions is still important revision. Half an hour reading during a nap counts. So does watching a revision video while you’re nap-trapped with headphones on.
Equally, if you’ve been awake half the night and can barely remember your own name, it probably isn’t the evening to tackle a complicated new topic.
Your study plan needs enough structure to keep you moving forward, but enough flexibility to survive life with a baby.
3. Accept that this might not be your fastest qualification
This is perhaps the most important one.
There can be enormous pressure in financial services to keep progressing: the next exam, Diploma, Advanced Diploma, Chartered status. But becoming a parent is a huge life change.
If you need longer between exams, take longer. If your planned sitting suddenly isn’t realistic, move it. And if all you can manage for a few weeks is keeping your existing knowledge ticking over, that’s still progress.
On the other hand, don’t automatically assume becoming a parent means professional study has to stop altogether.
Josh managed to complete his Diploma during one of the most chaotic periods of our lives. It wasn’t always neat, and it certainly wasn’t always easy, but it was possible.
The key was adapting studying to the life we had rather than waiting for life to become easier.
Because the newborn stage does eventually pass – Sleep improves (if you’re lucky), routines appear, and those tiny pockets of time gradually become a little more predictable.
Until then, lower the bar for what a successful study session has to look like.
Find somewhere quiet when you can, take advantage of the time that appears, and give yourself some grace when the plan inevitably goes out of the window.
Now Josh moves onto his Advanced Diploma, just in time for our second baby, due in November. Perhaps some people just thrive in the chaos!
Main image: baby -tim-bish-WbC9XIlQb4k-unsplash
