Two months ago, I started a new experiment I call Night School. Today, I’m sharing about this idea that was inspired by my previous part-time grad studies experience. I’ll explain what worked well, what didn’t, and what I’m trying next.

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If you didn't know, the first 14 years of my career, I worked in the

university environment, and I honestly loved it there,

except one part. I was regularly

mistaken as a student by other staff and faculty who just

assumed I was younger than I really was. And this happened even

well into my 30s. And look, I know

many people think it is a good thing to look younger than you are. We

all want to look youthful, But when you walk into a meeting with your

peers and they wonder why there's a student sitting at the table, it is

not a good thing. They would introduce themselves and they would ask,

oh, what program are you in? Or what are you studying? Now,

inside, I was just irritated. I felt like my years of work

experience and my credibility were being undermined by this

assumption they were making. But there is a catch

because in many cases, I was also A student.

I spent almost 7 of those working years as a

part-time student. While I was at the university, I completed

2 master's degrees and a nutrition certification, all while working

full-time. Which brings me to today's topic,

which is how my part-time student experience actually

inspired a new experiment that I conducted

recently that I call Night School. And by the

way, if you are new here, welcome. I am Kat, and on this podcast,

I share behind the scenes as I try real-time experiments to help

me to follow through on what matters and find momentum as a speaker

and a writer. Now, this Night School experiment, it

actually came from a joke that I made about my struggles with

follow-through. I commented to, to a friend, how

is it that I completed 2 master's degrees while working full-time, but I can't even

keep my kitchen clean? Welcome to ADHD. But the

joke I made actually lingered and it stuck with me because I

thought, well, okay, how was I able to do that?

And the answer is that I had structure, I had

accountability. This meant I had a class schedule, I had to show up to

class, and I did it even when I didn't feel like it, with some exceptions,

like if I was legitimately sick. But also the classes themselves were

working towards a bigger important goal, which was to

get the degree. So this June,

and after I made that joke and came back from a conference, I was feeling

really inspired after the conference, and which most people do. You

come back and you're all ready to go. But in this case,

I thought, okay, now in this point in my life, I do

have a bit more of a predictable schedule after a

particularly challenging year personally. So I

was feeling like It's really time to put my head down and get to work

and put in some work so I can see some traction on my business.

So I asked myself, what if I could recreate the

structure and accountability of night school?

And so I looked at my calendar, I committed to 2 nights

per week, and I asked a friend who I knew

was taking on a really big project that's this summer as well, and

asked, would he want to join? And he said yes. And his wife

also asked if she could join in too. So the 3 of us started

checking in with night school. 2 nights a week we would show up,

we would on WhatsApp just send a photo of ourselves ready to get to work,

almost like we were taking attendance, and we would get to work.

I also went offsite, so I decided to

return to the campus where I studied, where I did my MBA, and I just

figured, okay, I'll just walk in there as if I'm still an MBA student

because they're all ages. And I'll just sit down and get to work.

It's also the university I used to work at, so I felt very comfortable in

that environment. Now, I

feel like today I wanted to share because it's an experiment. Now, I'm not

currently in night school, but I am thinking about bringing it

back. So I'm going to share what worked, but also what didn't

work and what are some changes I actually have to make. And so the

things that did work for me. Having that structure,

having that schedule, knowing that 2 nights a week were blocked off for night school

were really, really helpful for me because I just knew to expect I'm going to

work on those nights. The other thing is checking in

and sort of taking attendance with my friends not only kept me

accountable, but also it was fun to see our pictures

and just say like, hey, I'm ready to get to work. The other thing, going

offsite. was really helpful, but it was helpful in the

summer when there are just generally fewer students

on campus. And now that it's September, things have changed, so I'll

talk about that in a moment. But actually leaving the house as if I'm going

to class did feel helpful. It's like I put my backpack on and I'm

going to school. The other thing is that because it was summertime,

I did have some built-in breaks, so it wasn't like it was nonstop all

through the summer. I knew that there were some weeks where I was traveling, going

on vacation just for some long weekends. And so I paused for a couple

of the weeks during the summer. And the other thing is that

working in the evening, it's way less prone to

interruptions because people aren't expecting you to communicate.

People aren't expecting you to reply to emails. So it's just a lot easier to

protect that time, which I really, really liked that piece of it. I

could just quietly work on a project for a few hours and not have anyone.

bothering me. And I wouldn't have meetings. People aren't

planning meetings for that time of night. So those were the good things. That's what

worked. But there were some struggles. There were a few nights

that I was supposed to go and I bailed. Now, I

did think about the fact that there were times, even as a student, where I

would skip class because I genuinely was not well enough to

go. I went most of the time, but there were some times where I bailed

and I figured, okay, that's common. That is a thing. However, it

does interfere with what I wanted to get done that week. The other thing is

that on the weeks where my friends were away on their own summer

vacations, it was a lot easier to skip because I knew

that they wouldn't be expecting me to send them a message because I knew they

weren't in school that week. And then also there were a

few nights when I was there, I got locked in and I

ended up just staying much later than I expected. And then

I had to kind of stop myself, go home, but I was just kind of

tired but also wired. And then the next day I would feel kind of tired.

Uh, well, I was tired and it would impact my next day. The

other thing looking back is that my capacity now

and some of my actual physical limitations are different than

they were when I was in school. So it's almost 10

years since, maybe it's more than 10 years. It's more than 10 years

since my MBA. And it just, it is different. I am, I am

older and there just, It's, I don't have quite as much energy as

I did at the time. And here's the other thing that I noticed is that

sometimes during the day, especially on one of the days

that I was planning to go to night school, I might actually procrastinate on

work that day telling myself, oh, I have time to work on that tonight.

And so in those cases, I was actually just kind of delaying

and putting off work I should be doing during the day. And the whole point

of the night school is to have extra time for projects and things that I

want to move my business forward. And I realized I was kind of just

putting off day work for night, which is not the point of Night School.

So with this in mind, looking back at those 2

months, and obviously it wasn't 2 full months of Night School, but it was enough

weeks for me to get some valuable information and experiment

results. I like the Night School

idea. And I would like to find a

way to continue it or incorporate it back into my schedule

on an as-needed basis. So sort of thinking it as times when I

need a little bit of a heads-down injection, so to speak, where

I want some uninterrupted time to just get

things done, whether that's a new project, or I've been recently thinking

that I could also take on the school meaning of

what would it look like if I spent that time on some of the educational

and development things I'm doing? For example, last week I mentioned that I

want to work through some of the core foundations that are part of my

Deeper Foundations membership, and those could be really good

candidates for doing during night school because it is something where I'm

working on the business instead of working in the business. So that

could also be a great thing. So I think educational or just extra

time for projects. Above and beyond my regular day.

That being said, I need to address some of the holes that I

experienced, like saying, oh, I could just work on this at night

and then put it off or take it easy during that day. So then I'm

not actually having any extra time. The other thing is that I

don't want to rely on friends who kind of got wheeled into this summer

experiment. I can't guarantee that they'll want to continue, but I know that

having people to check in was a really important part of that.

So I do think that there might have to be some sort of

structure of accountability, and I don't know what that looks like yet. So I'm

still kind of experimenting with, okay, what could that look

like? Is that something I put a call generally out to people and say, does

anyone else wanna do this with me? Is this something that I may even

offer formal structure? And sort of like in the spring when I

offered the Momentum sessions, which were coworking sessions. Could

night school be a coworking session that people that actually provide

as a service to others that also supports me doing it? That's something I've thought

about, but it is something I do think I'm going to incorporate

back into my schedule. And then also remembering to, to

work in some breaks so that I know this is not something that's just

nonstop. And what does it look like to plan in advance

for that? So those are some of the things that are going on. I'd love

to also hear your opinions. So if you have opinions, I'd love for you to.

Leave them in the comments on YouTube or even send an email. Um,

also if you were listening, because I would really like to hear what you think

of this idea and have you tried something similar. Now on this

podcast each week, I share my tracker, my public tracker.

So let's take a look at the, the tracker and how

that's been going. And this is

what we're looking at with September. So in September for posts,

remember my goal is 25. I am currently at

13 posts out of 25, so I'm at 52%

of my goal, which feels pretty good. And for my

outreach, if we scroll down here, my outreach, the goal's

25, I'm at 8. So this is a little bit lower

and there is a reason for that. The other thing, and I'll share

that, the outreach results. So I do have,

I had a conversation last week and I've got a date in the calendar for

a speaking engagement. October and my appearances, I

haven't had anything new since last week in September. And if

we go to my overall outcome tracker where I list the number

of audience members who've seen me speak and subscribers for

September, audience members is staying at 111

because I haven't done anything since last week and subscribers are now at

27. So these are, these are modest

increases, but I do feel like This is something

I, last week I mentioned I was reading the book The Long Game. So

I have finished that book. That's by Dory Clark. And one of the

things in The Long Game that is mentioned is what's called the deception phase.

And this is something that is common in the,

uh, in the tech industry where in the very early

days, the changes in the growth are so small that they

look insignificant and they look like they're going nowhere. But

they aren't growing in a linear fashion. They're actually growing exponentially,

but it's really hard to see an exponential curve in those early days.

It's going to look like it's flat for a while, but eventually those

growth, that growth will hit a peak and it happens slowly. And

so during that deception phase, the deception is it can look like it's not working

and it can look like those numbers aren't anything, but over time it

can actually grow. So I am trying to remember that lesson. Uh, the

deception phase lesson that was in The Long Game. Uh, the other thing about

The Long Game that I really appreciated from that book was that it did talk

about, you know, resilience and there are going to be times where you get knocked

down and to keep your eye on that long

term, that it takes a long time. And a lot of the people that you

look up to who have done something incredible, it didn't happen

overnight. It was actually something that was built over a long time.

And I also have to remember that even when with today's topic, like night school,

Sometimes I am a person who gets very

impatient. Patience has never been my strong suit. I have

always, my whole life, been someone who's quite impulsive. Now that I know

more about ADHD, I understand that. But as soon as I decide I want

something, I want it to happen immediately, and I have very little patience.

And with something like night school, it does add in a little extra time, but

I have to remember that even if I'm adding in some extra hours into my

work, And being able to work on some projects above and

beyond my daytime, it's still going to—

I still have to be patient and it's still not gonna happen overnight. And so

that is something that's been very valuable to me. So

all in all, I think I'm gonna continue night school. I

would love to hear your thoughts. This is very much kind of influx as I

figure out what this looks like. But if you have comments, please share.

I do wanna hear from you. And I will continue to update you

on this experiment, but also all of the experiments as I try to find my

momentum.