How to: stay prolific after you have kids

The trick to being prolific is to stay constantly moving. Like a shark lurking in the ocean’s depths, you have to swim forwards like your life depends on it in your social life, career and artistic endeavors. In theory, this is a recipe for success – do as much as possible and you have to strike gold eventually.

But what happens when you have a child? Suddenly you’re more time- impoverished than ever, and it seems like the career opportunities you valued so highly are entirely outside your grasp.

That doesn’t have to be the case. As with any modern problem, there are ways to achieve your goals and raise a child at the same time.

To help show you what we mean, we’ve found ways to acquire skills that don’t require long hours away from home. Take a look!

Prolific after you have kids – Get a degree

The standard path to getting a degree is still the most popular – head to university, live in rat-infested student accommodation for three years, spend caffeine-fuelled evenings cramming for exams, and leave four years later with a degree in your hand and the prospect of a reasonably paid job on the horizon.

Yet just as there’s no single route to success, there are ways to obtain a degree without having to leave your home.

Distance learning degrees are exactly that. Undertaken almost entirely online, you can study for a distance learning degree from providers like Anglia Distance with pre-set modules that you can access whenever you like.

So when your kids have been put to bed, you can cram for your next pop quiz on your phone, tablet or laptop.

Prolific after you have kids – Learn a language

Few British people are taught languages properly in schools, especially by comparison with their bilingual European counterparts. As a result, many feel like they’ve missed out, but find little time in the day to remedy their woes.

Enter Rosetta Stone, a learning platform that can help you master a new language in an accessible way on your own time.

But what’s great for time-strapped parents (or anyone else, for that matter) is that it’s simple to dip in and learn a few words and phrases for five minutes a day with the app’s phrasebook feature, but you’ll also have access to personalised tutoring too!

Read the great novels

There’s a good reason that the best novels of all time deserve to be read – they’ll help you understand your place in the world, give you new insight into the human experience and may even teach you a thing or two about how you should live your life.

And books are by their very nature designed to be consumed at a time that suits you. Carry one around with you wherever you go – whether you’re waiting to pick up your child from nursery, keeping an eye on them while they play and explore, or finding some leisure time after they’ve fallen asleep, you can whip out your paperback and enjoy some of the best literature that life has to offer.

Those are our tips! How do you balance acquiring skills with a time-poor lifestyle? Let us know in the comments below.