A Crazy Day in the Life of an MBA Applicant
What does a typical day look like in the life of an MBA applicant? I can’t speak for everyone, but here is a typical day for me!
Before I get started, I want you to remember a time that you lost your breath.
Maybe you had asthma, or maybe you had just swam underwater and were coming up for air. If possible, take 5 seconds, close your eyes, and remember that time.
Think about gasping for air; how BADLY you wanted that next breath. Go on, think about it.
In that moment, you didn’t care about checking your phone. You didn’t care about watching your favorite show. You didn’t care about going to happy hour. You didn’t care about, dare-I-say, the World Cup. You didn’t care about ANYTHING except one thing: breathing.
Breathing. When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you will be successful. A powerful thought that drives my motivation. (Check out this youtube video.)
What my [typical] crazy week day looks like:
- 4:30 AM – Wake up
- 5:00 AM – Exercise & cold shower
- 6:00 AM – GMAT studying for one hour
- 7:00 AM – Go to work/job
- 11:00 AM – Lunch & read application essays
- 5:00 PM – Quit work/job and start non-profit
- 6:00 PM – Dinner & non-profit or mba application work
- 7:00 PM – GMAT studying for one hour
- 8:00 PM – Non-profit OR MBA application work
- 9:00 PM – Read application essays until fall asleep
My weekends are a little better (at least 4-5 hours of non-profit work and 10 hours of GMAT studying over two days)
I know this schedule is pretty crazy, and although I don’t get it perfect every day, I try my best. You’ll notice that I interlace my MBA applicant journey throughout my day, to help remind me to stay focused. By allocating my time like this, I my productivity has gone way up–even beyond my applicant journey!
I hope this gives you a framework for what other applicants are doing, and helps you find your own battle rhythm for success.
Every day I ask myself what I really want, then execute.
Other Posts you may be interested in:
- 5 Weeks, 10,000 Views, and all the Essay Analyses! (almost)
- My Plan to Retake My 710 GMAT
- My MBA Plan
9 Responses to “A Crazy Day in the Life of an MBA Applicant”
When you say “read application essays”, are you meaning actual essays from previous applicants?
Yep! Harbus’ book or the free essays (via email) from Admissionado. Email me if you need more info.
Good job man, keep it up!
Thanks!
That’s a tight schedule! What sort of non profit work do you do? And those essays, can I download them from somewhere?
The only thing I know of is the book published by Harbus (HBS essays) and a book of essays given away by Admissionado.
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